The Violet Devil
by Demon of Zero
Summary: Nearly a decade had gone by after his plan had nearly been foiled by the Code. He had been living a relatively normal life since, but he was a bit reclusive. And like many a recluse before him, he had turned to online games for most of his social interaction. When he gets a beta invite to the new VRMMO, Sword Art Online, he thinks himself fortunate. How deluded he was.
1. Chapter 1

I'm terrible. Despite neglecting all my other stories, here I am throwing out yet another one that will likely sit abandoned for a long time, seeing maybe one or two updates. Quite the depressing concept.

I don't own Code Geass or Sword Arts Online. If I owned either, I'd be rich and you wouldn't be reading this.

Frankly, if I owned Code Geass then it'd probably gone past fifty episodes simply because I have such trouble ending things.

* * *

It had been nearly a decade since the death of the Demon Emperor, Lelouch vi Britannia. Nearly ten years of uninterrupted peace, treaties held firm across the world. Any attempts to instigate unrest were dealt with swiftly, lest they grow out of control and disturb the most prosperous era the world had seen. No one was willing to let another Demon Emperor rise up and demolish millions more lives.

While a natural dislike based on cultural differences, previous encounters, and land disputes cropped up, no one allowed themselves to act rashly. Diplomacy solved problems before they could even begin. Nations that were formerly in bitter wars, ceased. The occasional incidents that terrorized the good people of the world were few and far apart, none of them any threat to the peace of the world as a whole.

In short, the reign and subsequent death of Lelouch vi Britannia was the best thing to happen to the world in quite some time. Just as he had planned. However, not everything went according to his masterpiece of a plan.

The Zero Requiem was fool-proof. A master work of planning, of scheming, of distancing himself from those he knew, of setting the stage for the perfect moment. It simply could not fail. Kururugi Suzaku, disguised as Zero, would narrowly avoid death at the hands of Lelouch's guards, and run him through in a feat of near superhuman prowess. Lelouch would fall to his death, the world would rejoice, and he and Suzaku could repent for the sins they had committed. He, by dying, and Suzaku by living forever more as a symbol, rather than a man.

His ultimate repentance, however, was denied to him. Through sheer luck, Lelouch vi Britannia had survived that day. Upon waking, hidden quite thoroughly by a coalition of the few who remained on his side to the end, and beyond, Lelouch had been shocked. Almost hysterical. He was terrified his plan had failed, and that it was all for naught. He calmed quickly upon being told that his "death" was still set in stone, and that he had succeeded. However, Lelouch fervently believed that he should have died upon that gaudy float. He had berated his trio of saviors, much to their exasperation and annoyance. Lelouch had insisted he was supposed to die. He had to die.

Sadly for him, C.C. had been around to explain just why he had survived the fatal wound. Unnoticed by Lelouch or the other two supporters, a symbol had carved itself into his lower back, just above his tailbone. The symbol of Geass, and the Code. When he had destroyed Charles, his bastard of a father, it seemed the Code had lied dormant inside of Lelouch. Upon his death, the Code activated, preserving the life of one who sought to die. Lelouch had laughed bitterly, impressed with Fate's sense of irony, and annoyed with it's sense of humor. And yet, as he knew, one with the code could not die. He was stuck living in the world he had sacrificed millions to create. A world that lacked many people he had cared dearly for, their lives taken due to his own machinations. A world in which his face was a sight more offensive than Satanic symbols painted on a wall in the fresh blood.

Needless to say, Lelouch did not appreciate fate toying with him in such a way. But, again needless to say, he would have to deal with it. It wasn't as though this was the first, last, or worst time one of his plan's had hit a snag.

And so, Lelouch had lived on, changing identities whenever needed, or when the urge hit him. He kept contact with the trio who had saved his plan from failure, which they had done by hiding the fact that he had survived from everyone. Sayoko had made it seem almost easy to do so, with help from Jeremiah and C.C. it was probably one of the easiest "missions" Sayoko had undertaken. Lelouch's body was not, after all, well looked after. No one cared what happened to trash, so long as it didn't pollute their world anymore.

Lelouch had gotten a kick out of that.

Jeremiah had gone and started an orange plantation in Florida. His parents had owned an orange plantation before their deaths, and so he had taken up the family business. Somewhere along the way, he had decided to adopt Anya Alstreim after freeing her from the effects of the Geass that haunted her. Lelouch had decided to visit Jeremiah once without having known the girl was there, which had led to a very awkward situation, and Lelouch being shot several times.

Seeing as how Lelouch now lacked his Geass, not that it would've mattered since Jeremiah was adamant that Anya never have to deal with the accursed power again, the only option was to let Anya in on the secret. Which led to Lelouch pretty much retelling his entire rebellion, start to finish, with only minor breaks for refreshments inbetween. After the story was over, which took a good many hours since he had gone into great detail, and answered any of Anya's side questions, the pink haired girl had shrugged and decided that Lelouch being alive really didn't matter, seeing as how the world was well on it's way to becoming a much better place at the time. Over the years, he had grown on her considering Lelouch often visited Jeremiah, frequently with C.C. in tow. By the end of the first year, they were pretty good friends. It amazed him how different the girl was now that Jeremiah had cleared her system of any Geass intrusion.

Sayoko had decided to live a nice, quiet life out in the country of Japan. Lelouch actually visited her more than Jeremiah, considering he had decided to stay in Japan himself. After living there for the best years of his life, and suffering through the worst years there aswell, Lelouch felt he was more Japanese than Britannian anyway.

C.C. did what she had been doing for years, wandering in and out of society. She stayed close to Lelouch more often than not, only venturing off on her own every once in a while for whatever reason.

In the end, despite his failure to commit assisted suicide, Lelouch was happy. Occasionally he felt guilty that he hadn't gone through with his end of the deal, while Suzaku remained hidden permanently behind a mask, but he couldn't do much about it lest he created a contract with someone, allow them to advance their Geass, and pass off the Code.

Obviously, that was NOT an option. A Geass user running around in a time of peace simply could not end well, nor was Lelouch keen on the idea of forcing the Code onto someone after all of C.C.'s experiences.

Regardless, ten years had passed, and Lelouch was currently living as a single, young man in a decent apartment complex. He had a job working at a large daycare center, something C.C. never failed to tease him about.

"Oh the things people would say if they knew that the Demon Emperor was watching their children." She would say. Or maybe "If you were looking for someone to play chess with, you could have just asked." Yes, he had gone about teaching a few of the children the game. A few had a passing knowledge of the game, so Lelouch decided to give them a few lessons to pass the time. He played a few games with them every day he worked, now.

His current identity was a favorite of his; Alan Spacer. A pair of blue contact lenses and hair that fell to his upper back hid his true appearance from the world. He had very few friends outside of C.C., Jeremiah, Sayoko, and Anya, limiting his interactions with people so that he didn't give himself away. After all, while living in Japan was a decision he had made and intended to live with, so many people who had known him were high in rank in the country. Several times he had seen people he recognized, and he made sure to make himself inconspicuous.

And so, Alan Spacer was a bit of a recluse. And as many a recluse had done before him, he got into online games. He never got too deep into them, mind you, but he did quite enjoy his new hobby. Anything from First Person Shooters to Real Time Strategy games (A personal favorite of his. He was quite the formidable opponent, boasting a very nice win-loss ratio on most RTS's he played.) After all, how were most random folks over the internet supposed to deal with facing down the Demon Emperor himself in a simulated war?

It was because of this hobby, Lelouch found himself in a major crisis. Along with nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine other unfortunate people.

Sword Art Online was the first MMO of it's kind, linked to a VR system that was impossibly advanced. It literally put people into the game, and made it seem real. Like, really real. You could hear sounds of everyday life going on around you in towns, taste food that you had bought or cooked, smell the flowers blooming on the ground, and feel the hilt of your blade in your hands. It was a masterpiece.

Lelouch had been extremely lucky, or so he thought, to receive a beta pass to this game. After learning as much as he could about everything in the game, he felt he had the knowledge to become a very accomplished player in this game, though balancing the game with his job was a bit disorientating considering just how real the game was. Were he not as clear minded and level headed as he was, Lelouch may have mistaken Sword Arts Online, and Aincrad, as reality.

It was actually a bit frightening.

Of course, not nearly as frightening as the very real situation he and many others found themselves in on this day.

* * *

Lelouch looked down at himself with a smile and a shake of his head. "It's so strange. No matter how many times I log in to SAO, it still impresses me just how real it seems." He smirked. "Well, no matter. I've places to be."

He looked around himself, noting that he had spawned in the City Square of Starter City. Just like when he had first logged in to the beta. He took off, jogging past the crowds of people that were just as excited, many even moreso, to be here for the first time. Or to return, as the case may be. He saw many people exchanging pleasantries, looking at merchant's wares, looking for friends they knew or just looking for groups in general, or just drinking in the impressive sight that was Aincrad.

Lelouch had no time for that, however. You see, many beta testers had found various things that were quite rare. These things ranged from secret dungeons, to secret items, to hidden shops, to quest giving NPCs who only gave so many of their various quests before disappearing or moving. One such NPC was Lelouch's target today.

He dashed outside of the city, running into a wooded area. He ran deeper and deeper into the woods, until he came across what appeared to be a campsite. A tent was set up a few yards away from a campfire, upon which a rabbit was being roasted on a spit. Various targets, some looking like scarecrows and others like archery targets, were set up in the forest. In them, you could spot what appeared to be throwing stars. A small weapon rack set beside the tent, holding various swords.

A man dressed in black hakama pants, a robelike top of the same color, and with bandages wrapped around his feet in place of shoes sat tending the fire. His hair was scraggy and dark, his eyes a bright green, and he had a rather laid back smile on his face. Upon noticing Lelouch, dressed in his purple newbie wear, the man waved lazily.

"Yo." The man, an NPC, waved. "Don't suppose you heard the rumors I was looking for an apprentice?" He asked.

Lelouch smiled. Upon accepting this quest, one would gain basic knowledge of a few skills.

First, Exotic Weapon Mastery. While wielding an "Exotic" weapon, stats were boosted depending on the rank of this skill. Exotic weapons include, but are not limited to, shuriken, throwing daggers, claws, kama, kusari-gama, and so on. There were more, but these were the ones Lelouch would be interacting with most, since this questline rewarded these weapons aswell as blacksmithing manuals on how to make them.

Martial Arts, an extra skill that is normally unlocked on the second floor, can also be gained from this questline.

And Acrobatics, which allowed for increased balance, speed, and flexibility.

While these were the only skills from the questline, it opened a secret shop that allowed for the purchasing of basic Ninja Armor, basic weapons such as curved one handed swords (Which one needed to level up extensively to gain the Katana skill), throwing weapons, and claws.

Despite the rewards from the questline, it was just that. A quest_line_. It was by no means easy to complete, and had killed Lelouch several times in the beta. Hopefully he would perform better this time, since he knew how it went.

"Yes, I've come to seek your training, Ranatsu." Lelouch replied.

Suddenly, the ninja stood up. "Alright. First of all, you're going to need the proper equipment. So, what'll it be, a sword or a claw?"

The blue eyes of Lelouch's avatar gleamed. "Claw." He replied. The basic claw was pretty much just three single sided daggers arranged in a claw pattern, mounted on a bracer. The starter was a bit bulky, but reliable. Further up, in the dungeons, there were some that were as thin as needles and stronger than steel.

Ranatsu nodded, tossing a basic Iron Claw towards Lelouch, which he proceeded to equip. "Get good enough with those claw skills, then we'll see about getting you to use two claws without killing yourself." He pointed off towards the beginner city. "Back in Starter City, you'll find a blacksmith named Nide. Hand him this." The dark haired man tossed an envelope towards Lelouch, containing what Lelouch knew to be a letter to Nide asking to start producing shuriken for Ranatsu's new apprentice. "Once you're done, I'll leave you to train on your own for a bit. Meet me a week from now at this location." He marked an area on Lelouch's map.

"Understood." Lelouch bowed lightly, before turning and walking off. 'This is the most annoying part of the questline.' He thought to himself. 'Having to grind to get your skills up to snuff before your next meeting with Ranatsu. It's not as though I can play this game constantly.'

Fate seemed to love proving him wrong.

* * *

Lelouch looked around the town square, brow arched as more and more people were forcibly teleported into the square. Lelouch wondered what it was about. Suddenly, his attention was drawn to a red box in the sky. It was flashing rapidly, and read "Warning!" in bold.

Within moments of Lelouch noticing, it began to multiply rapidly, until it covered the entirety of the sky. It dyed the world a bloody red, unsettling many players. As if that wasn't disturbing enough, what looked like blood began to drip down from the sky, forming into a large, bloblike shape. "What is that?" He heard a man ask, nearby.

"I'm scared..." A girl muttered, holding onto the arm of a boy she had been teleported in with. He assumed they were in a party.

After a moment, the blob formed into a humanoid shape. A large, faceless figure in a blood red robe, accented with gold, appeared. A voice rang out, as though from a P.A. system. "Attention players. Welcome to my world."

""My world"?" Lelouch quoted, along with several other players.

"My name is Kayaba Akihiko. As of now, I am the sole person in control of this world." He lifted his hand, holding it before himself. "As many of you have surely noticed, there is no logout button. This is not a defect in the game." As he said this, he brought up the menu to demonstrate. "I repeat, this is not a defect in the game. It is an intended feature of Sword Art Online."

Lelouch got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "What is he playing at, here?" Lelouch asked, aloud.

"You can not log out of SAO by yourselves. Nor can anyone on the outside remove the nerve gear from you." The large, robed figure of Kayaba Akihiko said. "Should this be attempted, the nerve gear will release a microwave, which will destroy your brain. Thus ending your life." As he said this, people began to murmur to one another in concerned, hushed tones.

Lelouch's eyes went wide. "No..." He muttered to himself. He was fully aware of the fact that the nerve gear COULD do such a thing, had someone the mind to do it. "He wouldn't have..."

"Unfortunately." The spectre continued. "Several player's friends and families have ignored this warning, and removed the nerve gear. As a result, two hundred and thirteen players are gone from both Aincrad and reality. Forever." As he made this grim statement, screens appeared dictating that, as he said, several people had been killed by the microwaves emitted from the nerve gear.

His teeth grit. 'No no no no... Ten years of peace, and this man used it to do THIS?' Lelouch yelled in his mind. 'He has decided to condemn, at maximum, ten thousand people to their deaths. Why? What is this man's reasoning?' He calmed himself, glaring at the avatar of this horrible man.

"As you can see..." Kayaba said, the screens rotating around him. "News stations across the world are reporting this information. And the deaths. Thus, you can assume the risk of having your nerve gear removed is null. I hope you will relax and attempt to clear the game."

"There's a catch. Always a catch. He can't simply want us to clear the game. What else has he got in store for us?" Lelouch muttered to himself.

And leave it to Kayaba to deliver. "However, I want you to remember clearly. There is no longer any method to revive someone in this game. And when your avatar's health bar reaches zero..." He paused for a moment. "Then your avatar is forever lost. And simultaneously... the nerve gear will destroy your brain." He allowed that to sink in to the crowd.

'I see...' Lelouch thought to himself rapidly. 'So we must clear the game, and keep from dying even once. Or, rather, everyone but myself must. While I will remain alive, my avatar will be deleted, thus rendering me unable to further progress the game. Kayaba has likely hidden himself too well to be located, and even if we did find him, we couldn't be certain there is a way to safely end this game. So, then... the only surefire way to get as many people as possible out of this hell is to progress to floor one hundred, and defeat the final boss.' Once this was over, if no one else had done it, Lelouch was going to kill Kayaba Akihito.

During his thought process, the floating spectre had told the players that in order to escape, they must clear the one hundredth floor. Everyone was in shock.

"Finally, I have added a present from myself to you. Check your inventories." Kayaba suggested.

Lelouch did so, frowing when he located it. "A mirror?" He asked, opening the item. As it fell into his hands, particles began to fly off of him and into the air. Much like the rest of the players, Lelouch soon found himself staring into his reflection. HIS. REFLECTION. He quickly ducked his head, making himself look as if he was looking down in fury or depression, much like many others as they came to realize the situation in full detail. 'Damn it damn it damn it.' Lelouch thought to himself. 'I can't believe this. The nervegear... it scanned me. Any official searches would match the face and name to Alan Spacer, however...' The nerve gear had pierced through the contacts he wore. His eyes were their normal shade of amethyst. With his hair as it was now, he could pass himself off as an unfortunate look alike, but he would rather just hide his appearance to lower the risks of being called out as the Demon Emperor. That simply couldn't end well for him.

"I'm sure you're all wondering "Why? Why would Kayaba Akihiko do all of this?" In truth, my goal has already been accomplished. I created this world... solely to intervene in it." He announced, before saying his parting words. "And so ends the tutorial for Sword Art Online. Good luck, players."

Lelouch snarled. "He wants to play God, does he?" Well, if Kayaba wanted to play God, so be it. Lelouch had stood before the closest thing this world had to a God. He had killed the Emperor of Britannia, at one point nearly a God on Earth. He could handle Kayaba and HIS god complex.

Without a word, Lelouch walked to the barrier. As it fell, he was the first to leave.

"I need to get to the next village. The fields outside will be picked clean soon." Lelouch said as he sprinted out of Starter City. "Kayaba, I am going to end this game if it's the last thing I do!" He yelled. He didn't start a war that spanned the entire world, bring hatred to his face and name, and sacrifice his chance to live a peaceful life with Nunnally for no reason. This madman was going to kill innocents for no reason other than his own sick amusement.

Lelouch had ruined the lives of millions. He had done so to wipe the slate clean, and the world was finally recovering. A tragedy like this was the LAST thing they needed!

And so he ran, slicing his way through the minor opposition of wolves. As another of the virtual canines dashed towards him, Lelouch's claw began to glow a light purple color. As he ran, he extended his right arm to the side, lowered his body stance, and leapt past the beast, slashing as he went. He continued running, leaving the beast to explode into particles.

A sudden thought hit him. What if someone he knew was in this hell? It was a possibility. Many adults had been in the square, and his youngest friend would be only 26.

He grit his teeth and pressed on. He would have to deal with it as it arose, if it arose.

For now, he would grind until he was a higher level, then he would seek out Argo. While the mirror incident would likely make finding her a pain, he was sure she wouldn't be too difficult to locate. After all, she was the most well known information broker during the beta.

* * *

During the one month period between the beginning of Sword Art Online and now, several things have happened. Lelouch had ground his way to the higher levels, as had many a beta tester.

He had reconnected with a friend from the beta, Argo. Between the two of them, they had further updated Argo's guide book, which could be obtained from general store NPC's free, to include various safety concerns with mobs that were often used to grind to higher levels. Such as the Dire Wolves deep in the forest, which grew stronger if they saw you kill a packmate.

Despite this, two thousand people have died.

It infuriated Lelouch. Argo was quite distressed when she gave him the actual body count.

He had completed the first few quests in the Shinobi Questline, gaining the martial arts skill. He was still garbed in the newbie armor, but wore a black, hooded cloak atop it. Within the next week, he would likely have opened the secret shop to gain the basic ninja armor, which had better stats than the newbie wear by a large margin, and was quite cheap to purchase.

He had opened the secret shop for the Starter City Blacksmith, Nide, and now he could purchase Shuriken from him for a very good price. He had been training his Throwing Item skill since. His Claw skill was also coming along nicely. He also made certain to train his Sneak skill. All in all, he was doing well for himself at the moment.

And speaking of the moment, he was currently in the town closest to the dungeon, attending a strategy meeting for the first boss. He refused to miss this.

The attendees sat in an old, outdoor theater of sorts. Those who were partied with one another seemed to form their own little groups, leaving a few odd ones out. Lelouch was one of them. Another was a boy in a blue set of newbie gear, a single sword sheathed on his back. And yet another was a person in a dark red cloak, with the hood up.

Down in the center stage, a blue haired man in a rather nice looking uniform sat, wielding a shield and sword. "Attention, everyone! Thank you for coming today." The man announced. "My name is Diabel, and I like to think of my "job" as Knight." He said job in a light hearted manner, causing a bit of laughter. He was rather charismatic. Good. He spoke again, this time his voice tinged with seriousness. "I have called this meeting because today, my party has discovered the boss room." Many people gasped. "We need to defeat the boss, and advance to the next floor, so we can tell those in Starter City that this game CAN be beaten! We need to give them hope!" He shouted. "Everyone present here shares that duty. Do you not agree?"

Upon asking this, someone began to clap. And soon, most of the audience was in applause. The blue loner was smiling ever so slightly, and Lelouch himself had a small smirk. This Diabel certainly was charismatic indeed.

"A normal party cannot defeat this boss. We will need to form a raid group out of parties. Everyone, party up please." Diabel said.

And then the blue clothed loner began to look nervous, before noticing the other hooded loner. He scooted over to them, and began to try and break the ice. The deadpan response he got made Lelouch snicker. He walked over to the duo as they began to form a party.

"I apologize for interrupting, but would you be willing to allow one more? I also find myself alone for the moment." He asked, walking up to them.

The blue garbed boy looked up at him, and then towards the red hooded girl. "Do you mind?" He asked her. She shook her head quietly, and a party invite was sent to Lelouch. He accepted.

His display name, Gawain, became visible to the duo, though only Kirito actually looked. 'Kirito? He sounds familiar... Ah! That's right, I met him through Argo. He and I both went to visit her at the same time during the beta.' Lelouch thought to himself.

As the parties were formed, Lelouch sat down on the seats above Kiroto and Asuna.

Before the planning could begin in earnest, a man yelled out "WAIT!" From the top seat, seemingly he had just arrived. He had light hair, styled in spikes, a small goatee, and hazel eyes. He leaped down three sets of seats, before doing so again, and again. He wore a pair of tan, loose pants, had a sword upon his back, and seemed quite angry. "There are some people who need to apologize!" He shouted, confusing the audience. "For the two thousand who have died." He proceeded to exclaim that the beta testers had ran off and allowed the beginners to fend for themselves, thus killing them.

Lelouch noticed Kirito seemed quite anxious, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down." He said, softly.

Kirito flinched, before nodding, evening his breathing out.

Lelouch stood, drawing attention to himself. Much like the man from before, Lelouch leaped down to the center. However, he had cleared double the amount of rows the man from earlier, Kibaou, had. "You claim those who died are the responsibility of the beta testers, and ask that they prostrate themselves before you, provide compensation, and apologize. Am I correct?" He asked.

Another man, a large black fellow who was easily the tallest person at the gathering, had made his way down aswell. He reached the floor just as Kibaou answered "Yes!"

"My name is Egil." The black man said as he entered the dispute, holding a book. "You received one of these books, correct?" At Kibaou's shaky nod, the man continued. "The information compiled in this guide book is gathered from the combined efforts of several beta testers." Egil revealed.

This caused a wave of startled reactions, and Lelouch smirked. "Indeed it is." He turned on his heel. "Everyone had access to this information. People died, and that is a simple, unavoidable fact. People will die. We must make sure that their deaths aren't in vain. Our purpose here, today, is to do just that." With that said, he walked back to Kirito and Asuna, before taking a seat.

Egil and Kibaou sat on the first step.

"Very well then, can we resume?" Diabel asked, continuing at the consensus agreement. "The latest version of the guidebook is out. It contains information on the boss fight."

* * *

Everyone seemed to be in good spirits that night. A celebration was held in the square. All but a few of the attendees of the meeting were drinking and eating, sharing stories, playing games, or throwing good natured jabs at one another. All in all, it was the first time such a sight was to be seen in Aincrad. It was a historical moment, you could say.

Lelouch leaned up against the side of a building, looking over the procession. A small smile traced his lips. "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we march to hell." He muttered aimlessly.

"Well well, isn't someone depressing?" A voice drew his attention. He looked over to see a girl in a tan hood waltzing up to him, her hair a light brown color. Upon her cheeks were six purple whisker marks, three on either cheek. This was Argo the Rat, infamous information broker, and author of the guidebook. Also the only person from the beta who Lelouch had added to his friends list.

Though, he wasn't certain how wise that was. While she was incredibly useful to have around, and a pretty good friend, the girl had a knack for teasing people. Namely, him. "Hello Argo. How are you?" He asked.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking." She replied. "So, when do we leave for the boss tomorrow?" Asked the girl, giving Lelouch an impish grin. She hadn't wanted to deal with the meeting, though it shouldn't matter considering she knew the insides and outs of that boss fight quite well.

He gave her an arched eyebrow. "You do realize that the meeting is when everyone formed their parties, correct? Were you to come along, either I would have to ask Kirito to add you to our party, or you would have to go solo." Lelouch explained.

"Ne? You and Ki-bou are in a party? Now you gotta let me come along!" She exclaimed, giving Lelouch a pouty face.

"Fine, I'll ask. It'll have to wait until tomorrow, though. He and the other member of our party both left as soon as the meeting finished." Lelouch replied.

"Ah, I see. Ki-bou always did like to be a loner." She pouted a bit. "He was always visiting me about business, never just to say hi. Such a workaholic."

He rolled his eyes. "Yes, because so many people liked to be teased and taunted relentlessly while you hassled them out of their Col." He joked. "You are the reason information brokers even exist in the game, Argo."

Her pout transitioned into a suggestive smile. "You must have liked it, you were one of my most frequent visitors. Half the time you were giving me information rather than looking for it."

Lelouch shrugged, a soft smile coming to his lips. "I can't wait until we defeat the boss. Once we do, I'm certain it will inspire more players to join in."

Argo hummed in agreement. "I'm more excited about the cottage for rent on floor two. You remember it, right?" She asked with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "The one with the big indoor bath?" She continued. The girl smiled wide as she caught a tinge of pink beneath the boy's hood. "Yeah, you remember alright~. You never could seem to stop walking in on me." She sang.

"You always left the door open. And I never actually walked in, I just walked past the open door." Was his quick response. The cottage in question was Argo's home during the beta. She frequently used the indoor onsen when she had a free moment. Coincidentally, whenever Lelouch visited it seemed like she was bathing. Frankly, the cottage was the nicest house for the next couple of floors, with a very reasonable rent price. A price that was easily payed by Argo, considering she hoarded money. Selling information was quite cheap considering you needed very little in the way of Col to get information, if you knew where to look.

"All this brings us back to is the fact that you visited me often. So sweet of you, even if it was to try and catch me in the bath." Argo just loved to tease people.

He gave and exasperated sigh. "Yes, sure. I was so eager to catch you bathing that it prompted me to visit you often. Why not?" He threw his arms up in the air.

"Anyway!" Argo exclaimed. "It's late. I'll stick with you till we find Ki-bou. Do you have a room at an inn?" She asked.

"No, I haven't gotten one yet. I just arrived in town today for the meeting." He replied, a bit worried by the way Argo suddenly perked up at this revelation.

"That's great!" She said, a big smile on her face. "I got a room at the inn when I first got here, you can stay with me." She looked up at him with big, innocent looking eyes. "It's not a problem that there's only one bed, right?" The girl asked, hands clasped before her, taking on the posture of a naive young girl.

Lelouch gave her a flat look. "Yes." He replied in a deadpan tone. "I'll go rent a room." He turned, beginning to make his way to the inn to do just that, but he didn't get far before Argo hopped onto his back.

"Onward!" She shouted, wrapping her arms around his neck.

He stood there for a few moments, standing in the middle of the street with the girl hanging off of his back. Upon seeing that she wasn't going to remove herself from his back, and lacking the will to throw her off, Lelouch sighed before he continued on his way to the inn, giving Argo a piggy-back ride. He ignored her smug statement of "I knew you'd see it my way.", and her nuzzling his neck affectionately, and the curious stares of the various people who saw the spectacle.

His final statement on the matter was simple. "You are so lucky I like you, do you know that?" He asked, walking into the inn.

* * *

Lelouch and Argo had arrived to the meeting point long before anyone else had, simply deciding to chat with one another until the others arrived. The third person to show up was Diabel, who seemed surprised to see them. "Wow, you got here early." He said to Lelouch, glancing at Argo as he did so. "And you brought a friend?" He continued.

Argo sauntered up to the man, waving jovially. "Yep. Don't worry, I know the mechanics of the boss." She neglected to point out that she had written a book on the subject.

"If my party leader allows her to join, then she'll be with myself and the other two. If not, we'll simply form a party of our own." Lelouch shrugged. In the end, it didn't matter too much. He'd be sticking with Argo since he knew her. Should something go wrong, he wanted to see her health bar in case he needed to step in.

Diabel smiled. "That's good. We can use all the help we can get. By the way, your group, or groups as the case may be, will be handling the Ruin Kobold Sentinels since you're the only party with less than six. Any objections on your part?" He asked.

"No." Lelouch replied. Diabel nodded, walking off to greet the next arrivals, which happened to be Kibaou and Egil. "At any rate, Argo, I don't think I've ever seen you fight before. In the beta, you spent most of your time gathering information and hoarding it. Or bathing."

The girl nodded cheerfully, her hair bouncing with the motion. "Yep, you haven't seen me fight. All you need to know is that I use claws. Anything more'll cost you, but don't worry, you get a discount. I'll give you a complete rundown of my fighting style for the all time low price of three hundred Col!" Lelouch's deadpan stare let her know that he wasn't buying. "Mou, you're no fun." She pouted, crossing her arms.

"And here I thought I was the only one who actually used claw-type weapons. You're the first person I've seen who uses them, other than me." Claw type weapons weren't considered viable by many. They had low base damage, but high crit chance, short range, and blocking or parrying with them was more hassle than dodging outright. They were used, mainly, by PK guilds who harassed other players during the beta. Without those guilds to worry about, claws and daggers went pretty much unused.

On the topic of PK guilds, Lelouch wasn't sure whether or not any would crop up. He dearly hoped not. As if people needed worries like that in a world like this. It was fine, if annoying, back during the beta. All you had to worry about was respawning then. Now, if a player chose to kill another, things were much more serious.

"Fufufu~, do you really think I would be doing anything other than hopping around enemies like a flea with a sugar rush?" She asked, giggling into her hands. And, as she had so eloquently put it, dodging and pestering opponents with constant strikes from odd angles was the only real way to fight with claws, as they needed to hit weak points to put out their highest amounts of damage. While poisons could be applied to claws and daggers to great effect, a good amount of bosses were immune to poison. A rare few were extremely susceptible, however. Lelouch recalled that the fourth floor boss had an extreme weakness to poison, enough to make the fight a cake walk for anyone who was informed.

Lelouch spotted the familiar blue gear of Kirito, and waved him over. Once Argo saw him, she instantly glomped him with a cry of "Ki-bou!", knocking them to the ground, her straddling him. The black haired boy grunted as he hit the ground, sighing as he tried to sit up, which Argo made quite difficult. "Ne, ne, Ki-bou, how've you been? You haven't come to visit me once! It's cruel to keep a girl waiting like that." The girl said, hugging the embarrassed boy.

"Urk... Uh, hello Argo. I'm fine, I guess." Kirito replied, rather surprised to see the mousy girl here. "What are you doing here?" He made his surprise apparent. He hadn't known Argo to actively seek him out, so he didn't think that was it. He didn't know if she knew anyone here, so he supposed she may have been chatting with a friend. Or maybe she'd shown up to help fight the boss? Eh, he didn't know her to fight much either. He didn't even know what weapon she used, since she didn't keep any equipped at most times.

Argo hopped of of him, performing a showy back-flip in the process, before landing in front of the cloaked player who Kirito had partied with the day prior. A few of the spectators clapped jokingly, and Argo bowed to them as though she was a performer in a play. "Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week. Well, actually, no I won't. Once we clear the boss I'm gonna explore floor two..." Of course, by explore, she meant "Rent out the cottage in the mountains.", but they didn't need to know that. That was one secret she was quite certain to keep.

"Argo. Are you going to tell him why you're here or not?" Lelouch asked, shaking his head in exasperation. That girl was so peppy it was odd. Though the comment on clearing the boss had actually given a little morale boost. He wasn't sure if she did it on purpose or not.

Argo snapped her fingers, as though she had just remembered something, before replying. "Oh yeah! Ki-bou, can I join the party too? I was a little late to the show." Of course, it was by her own choice, but why did Ki-bou need to know that?

Kirito blinked. "You're... you're helping us fight the boss?" He asked, a bit stunned. As said earlier, Kirito didn't even know Argo COULD fight. She never told him her level either, always demanding outrageous amounts of Col for the information, so he assumed it was a lower level.

"Yep!" She replied with a chipper nod. "So invite me please~" She clasped her hands before her, and gave Kirito her best impression of a kicked puppy.

Faced with such an overwhelming amount of "AWWWW" Kirito had no choice but to comply, sending the invite request once he managed to tear his eyes away from the ridiculously adorable sight. "You are far too good at that..." He muttered in defeat.

"Yes, she is." Lelouch agreed from his position, leaning against the wall of a nearby building.

"Wait." Kirito started. "You two know one another?" If so, then either this Gawain guy was an information broker, or he was a beta tester. Come to think of it, the name did sound familiar.

The purple eyed boy nodded slightly, so as not to show too much of his face to Kirito's inspection. "Yes. We met in the beta." He revealed, loud enough for Kirito to hear, and quiet enough to keep from being overheard. "That means, out of our group, there is one who is not confirmed as a beta tester." He eyed Kirito for a moment. "Would you happen to know whether or not Asuna is a beta tester?" Lelouch questioned.

Kirito shook his head for a moment. "I don't think she is, but I could be wrong." He shrugged. "Not like it matters too much."

Argo butted in to the conversation... by leaping onto Lelouch's back, and nuzzling into his neck affectionately. "Awww~ Wain is trying to get info for his dear Argo-chan!" She exclaimed joyously. "So considerate." Argo had a habit of being extremely affectionate with damn near everyone she met. If she liked you, even a little bit, you would be constantly showered with hugs. She really liked hugs. And subjecting her closer friends to awkward situation after awkward situation. Innuendo and Argo walked hand-in-hand. "Still trying to repay me for walking in on me bathing?" She asked quite loudly, drawing attention to their group.

Lelouch blushed beneath his hood. "Damn it Argo..." Did she HAVE to keep bringing that up? She gave him permission to visit whenever he pleased, was it really his fault that she spent most of that time in the onsen? And even moreso, why the hell was she always in there? People didn't need to bathe in SAO, even now, but it was regarded as a massive comfort. Back in the beta it was just somewhat relaxing, but most people spent their time in Aincrad leveling, and bathed, ate, and slept in the real world.

A lot of people snickered, assuming that either the duo knew one another in the real world, or that they had been using lakes to bathe like the others who had felt they needed to be immersed in water. Diabel, however, smirked. Argo knew the value of information quite well, and she also knew just how to distribute it in the best way possible.

Diabel, as a beta tester, was aware of the fact that public bath houses didn't start appearing until floor two, and homes with baths built in didn't appear until floor three and up. Basically, letting this info slip had the intent of telling Diabel that they were beta testers, assuming he, too, was one. Lelouch's sharp eyes caught his smirk, bringing a smile to his own lips. 'Argo is far too good at this to be a normal person.'

"So... she calls you Wain, and me Ki-bou. Wonder what she'll come up with for Asuna." Kirito idly wondered, waiting on the arrival of the OTHER cloaked member of their group. Really, what was up with all of these cloaks? Was he the only one in the party who DIDN'T like them?

"Probably something along the lines of "Suna-chan"." Lelouch offered, waving his hand dismissively. Argo wasn't happy with this, and made it abundantly clear by reaching forward, under the hood, and pulling on his cheeks. As he attempted to fend her off, causing yet another spectacle, the final member of their group arrived.

"..." The red hooded girl said nothing, before looking to Kirito. "You invited someone else to the party?" She asked, considering she was able to see a green bar hovering over the head of the girl who was still tugging on the hooded boy's cheeks.

"Yes. All the other parties are full, and she needed someone to group with." Kirito responded.

Asuna nodded. "I see."

It was 9:45 now. Fifteen more minutes until they set off. It seemed as though everyone had arrived, though Diabel held firm about waiting until 10:00 sharp to depart. His exact words were "If we left early, then any stragglers like the one that joined our effort today would not have a chance to help. And we need all the help we can get." He had smiled jovially after saying this, before continuing with "And, besides, we should take the last few minutes to relax. It wouldn't do for us to be all wound up when we fight Illfang." The group had gotten a chuckle out of that, and morale was quite high.

A sudden, loud, "OOOF!" drew everyone's attention back to the two who had been bickering, only to see them on the ground in a heap. After a moment, the pile-up suddenly ended with the mousy girl sitting cross legged on the stomach of the hooded boy. "I win!" She exclaimed loudly, a smug grin on her lips. Lelouch grunted, having been unwilling to just throw her off, which lead to this situation.

"Yes, you win, now get off of me." He stated simply.

She tilted her head cutely, an innocent look on her face that left Lelouch horrified, knowing exactly what was about to happen. "But... I thought you liked it when I was on top? You never seemed to mind before..."

Absolute, utter silence fell over the group, all of whom had been paying attention to the scene. Many had their mouths agape in shock.

"... I hate you sometimes." Lelouch muttered quietly.

Argo's clever response came a moment later "But I love you all the time, Lulu." She whispered, using the nickname she had given him upon learning his real name.

Lelouch recalled the incident that had given her that piece of information.

* * *

_A black haired boy garbed in a dark pair of hakama pants, a robelike top tied with a dark purple sash, and a simple pair of leather boots walked down the streets of Urbus, the main town of the second floor. His green eyes darted around, looking for something that didn't seem to be there. Upon realizing that his target was nowhere in sight, the boy frowned. "Where could she be?" He muttered to himself. Eventually deciding to visit another moderately well known information broker, an unofficial type of merchant that was pretty much pioneered by his target, he nodded before running off._

_He reached his destination, bolting down the alleyway he knew this particular broker liked to hang out in. Upon spotting him, the boy called out a greeting. "Ursal. How are you?" He asked the man._

_The man was tall, and lanky. He had long, spindly arms, covered almost entirely by the large cloak he liked to wear. His face bore a laid back grin, long blond hair falling behind him. His cloak had no hood, unlike most. He waved at the newcomer with a jovial smile making it's way onto his face. "Gawain. Been a while, usually you run off to see Argo. I've been getting jealous." He joked._

_Gawain shrugged. "Hey, it's not my fault she finds juicier info than you. Maybe you should step up your game, huh?" He responded teasingly._

_"Hah! As if I'd be able to match her. She's basically the most reliable source of info in the game, save NPCs. But her prices are pretty high, y'know? I'm just a cheaper alternative with the generic info." He shrugged. "But, still, it's income. Quests and grinding only give so much." Ursal was, mainly, a clearer. He had a decent knack for digging up info, always made sure his sources were reliable, and was quite cheap, but he never really found anything too terribly useful. Just little things, like certain attacks monsters could use if certain circumstances were met, semi-rare item drops from random mobs that normally didn't drop anything of worth, and so on._

_Argo had info on pretty much everything. Like, legitimately everything. She was a font of knowledge, but she was damnably expensive, and unmoving on her prices. It had caused quite a bit of grief and several PKing threats towards her. She would always shrug and respond with the obvious fact that you couldn't PK in safe areas. And it seemed as though she never left them, leading many to believe she was low level and thus an easy target. She never confirmed nor denied these suspicions to anyone._

_Gawain chuckled. "Yeah, she is rather high-priced. And speaking of her..." He paused for a moment... "Have you seen her at all? I know she's online, but I can't seem to find her. It's a bit concerning, since we arranged a meeting for today in the square. I'm willing to pay, of course."_

_Ursal's grin went south, and he shook his head. "No need to pay for this one. I was actually gonna tell you one way or another. I got it from a reliable source that she was seen running off into the mountains in a rush. They tell me she seemed upset, crying even, but I can't confirm it myself. If you know where she may be, I'd suggest checking up on her." He gave a small smile. "If anyone can find her, I'd bet on it being you."_

_The dark haired boy nodded. "I'll go see if I can find her. I've an idea of where she may be. Thank you, Ursal." He suddenly smirked, dropping a black, spherical object on the ground. Ursal's eyes widened as smoke blasted out, coughing by habit despite knowing he didn't even need to breath. He shook his head as the smoke cleared._

_"Damn that sneaky bastard and his smoke bombs. He dresses like a ninja, but does he need to act like one too?" Frankly, Ursal was a bit jealous. Gawain had told him about the ninja questline, saying that the NPC would probably appear again somewhere along the line, and that information like that would be a goldmine if he timed it right.  
_

_The way these "Limited NPC" quests worked was pretty simple. Some only gave out so many of these quests before stopping altogether, others gave one and disappeared, reappearing later to hand out another, and continuing this pattern until either they stopped giving quests, or not stopping at all._

_The Stationary Limited NPC Quests were always the same level of difficulty, always gave the same reward, and oftentimes the reward was a skill, so that they never got outleveled and thrown away._

_The Mobile Limited NPC Quests were almost always questlines that lasted for long amounts of time. As in, from level one to level fifty long. Some may even span the entire game. Gawain had told him that the amount of secret shops opened by this questline was ridiculous, and that it was almost definitely an "entire game" line. These shops sold soul-bound items that were always a few stats above what other NPCs sold of the same. However, they were pretty much outclassed by most rare monster drops._

_Ursal chuckled a bit to himself. If he ever found this Ranatsu NPC, he may take the quest himself. He always did want to be a ninja. He blinked, noticing a small brown pouch on the ground. He picked it up, warily, and proceeded to open it. Inside was a total of two hundred Col. He rolled his eyes, chuckling a bit. Seems Gawain payed him afterall._

_About twenty minutes later, Gawain had reached a rocky clearing surrounded by cliffs, a mountain spring in its center, fed by a large waterfall. A single tree rested on an island in the center of the lake, beneath which a hooded figure sat._

_The tan hood and small stature of the figure were dead giveaways as to the person's identity, especially considering how few people knew of this particular SLNPC Quest._

_Getting to the island consisted of either a swim, or leaping off of the stones that made a loose pathway towards the island. While the stones were small, only about a foot in diameter, and somewhat far apart, Gawain cleared the distance with no effort at all. He landed silently, though the figure should have known he had arrived. The look of shock on her tear streaked face was a clear indicator that she had not, infact, noticed him._

_"A-ah! G-go away!" She shouted, pulling her hood down deeper over he face, trying to make herself as small as possible._

_Gawain didn't go away. He sighed, before sitting down right beside the crying girl. One of his arms wrapped around her shoulder, pulling her closer to him. He knew, from previous experience, how to act in this situation. "You don't have to tell me what's wrong, but I'll listen to anything you'd like to say." He told her._

_"I l-logged in to ge-hiiic-get away from it a-all..." She muttered, leaning on him. "Everyone in class m-makes fun of me. Nanako and Miyaki are the meanest." The girl continued, her breathing calming. "T-they say such terrible things ab-bout me. I try to ignore it b-but I just couldn't today." Her sobs started all over again. "Th-they were mak-making fun of my mom! Saying she deserved to be s-sick because she g-gave birth to me!" She yelled._

_The boy's eyes widened, and an angry frown made it's way to his face. Argo sometimes talked about her mother, and her condition. Her steadily deteriorating health.. and how it began after a very straining birth. Her birth._

_He held her a bit closer, shushing her comfortingly. "It's alright." The situation wasn't too uncommon. Quite a few of the beta testers had used SAO as a place to vent their feelings without anyone knowing. Since any signals sent to the brain were intercepted and replicated on the virtual bodies, it made it quite possible to have an entire emotional breakdown in Aincrad and come out in the real world with a much better outlook._

_However, the specific cause of Argo's emotional trouble angered him. Why the hell would some high school kid say something like that to someone else? It was sickening. Were people really that cruel in public schools? Asheford had it's share of assholes, but none of them were that hurtful... except towards Suzaku, but that was a very specific circumstance. You'd think people wouldn't be as bad as before, since there were no world conflicts going on._

_The duo sat beneath the tree for an hour, before Argo had calmed down enough to simply sit and savor the warmth of the embrace they found themselves in. The girl was always affectionate, often hugging people she liked even slightly, but no one really ever hugged her save her mother and father. She liked the feeling of being hugged, rather than being the one to hug someone else._

_"Wai..." She suddenly began, breaking the silence. "Do people ever say such terrible things about you? Or is it just me, and not them?" She asked._

_The boy sighed. "People have said things much worse then that to me, Argo. I'm not very well liked in the real world." He replied._

_She looked up at him with wide lavender eyes. "Wh-what?" She asked, in shock. "B-but your so nice! Why would anyone hate you?"_

_The boy contemplated telling her, before deciding on just what he would say. "I was born eighteen years ago, back before the Demon Emperor was anything more than a prince of Britannia long thought dead. My parents were Britannian, and quite fond of Marianne the Flash. And so, they named their only child after her only son." Argo's gulp let him know she had figured out just what he meant. "Yes, my real name is Lelouch. If that alone wasn't enough, I had the misfortune of being stuck with eyes the color of amethyst, and hair like a raven's wings."_

_"You're kidding..." She muttered. "You basically look like a clone of the Demon Emperor?" That was bad. Like, beyond bad. That was the kind of thing people could get killed over, even in times of peace like this._

_Gawain shrugged. "Pretty much. I bought a pair of contact lenses, decided to go by my middle name, and grew my hair out a bit, so now I'm in a much better condition than my school years. I graduated early." He chuckled. "It was either that or stand another few years of getting locked in lockers and beaten up by everyone and their mother."_

_"It isn't funny." Argo muttered. "Just because you looked like him doesn't mean people should hate you like they hated him." His luck must have been horrible. Had he been born and named a century before or after the entire ordeal with Lelouch vi Britannia, then he would have been considered quite handsome if his story held true. But within a decade of the reign of the Demon Emperor, looking as he did was the worst curse one could receive. "You're probably thinking I'm so weak for breaking down over the words of some stupid schoolkids, huh? Especially when you've got real problems..." She sighed, depressingly._

_Seeing that she was about to begin understating her problems, Gawain stopped her. "No, I don't. Your problems are just as important as mine. No one should ever have to hear the things that have been said to you. If your classmates insult you like that, and the teachers won't do anything about it, go to your parents. Or the principle. Make your voice heard."_

_"Thanks..." Argo sniffled. "I really feel better now. Really, thanks..." She paused for a moment, and he saw the spark of devious intent behind those lavender eyes once more. "Lulu~."_

_"Urk..." He grunted, as though someone had punched him in the stomach. Was that nickname going to follow him everywhere he went?_

* * *

He was glad Argo had the good sense not to spread that name around. Now that he actually had his true appearance, he wanted to distance himself from that name as much as possible.

"AHEM!" Diabel cleared his throat loudly. "It's 10:00! We move out now!" Everyone picked their jaws up off the ground, and fell in place behind Diabel. "And march!"

With that said, the group departed from Tolbana town, and began making their way to the dungeon. It would be a thirty minute walk that was spent idly conversing, killing the occasional monster, and playing rock-paper-scissors.

As they walked, Lelouch performed a quick inspection of his inventory, making certain he had all the necessary items. 'Health potions, spare cloak, claw. Three hundred Shuriken, two hundred throwing needles, and ten smoke bombs...' Smoke bombs were ridiculously difficult to get on floor one, requiring lots of time and effort to make. And you had to make them, as they were not for sale.

An NPC in Starting City gave a quest that gave the skill required to craft them. The quest simply sent you out to gather ingredients in the most dangerous area of the floor, the dungeon. And so, Lelouch had to run about the dungeon collecting herbs and minerals and so on in order to put together ten smoke bombs. He'd have to do so again for another ten, and so on and so on. Thankfully, as the content became outleveled, it would be trivial to procure them.

Until he needed to get upgraded smoke bombs, that is. Those were used almost exclusively for soloers, since they blinded all but those who had trained in order to resist them. Some even had status ailments attached to them, which didn't effect the user if they had the specialized training. In other words, you couldn't buy them and expect to use them effectively, you had to make them to negate the status effects, and the blind. Regular smoke bombs just gave an in combat version of "hide" to the user and, to a lesser extent, allies, and were usable by anyone who could get ahold of them.

Argo carried ten or more on her aswell, he knew. He had seen her gathering the materials aswell, though he hadn't known it was her at the time.

Seeing the dungeon entrance closing in on them, Lelouch equipped his claw. The claw itself was a rare-drop from a moderately powerful rare spawn, the Green Reaper. The creature had resembled a giant preying mantis, with four arms tipped with three scythe-like claws. The weapon was a dark green, nearly black, gauntlet, with three sickle-like claws protruding about eighteen inches from the knuckle area. The entire gauntlet actually looked rather organic, disturbingly enough. It was as if he had torn the arm off of the Green Reaper and made the gauntlet from that.

It had a unique effect, which increased the speed of it's wielder for each critical strike made on a weak point. This included speed while moving, and speed while attacking. The effect lasted for five seconds, reapplying if the effect was triggered again. The duration stacked as many times as you could crit a weak spot. It was one of the better claws on this floor, on par with the Dire Worg Paw, which had a strong bleed effect, ridiculously high base damage for a claw type weapon, and a sword skill all of it's own.

Argo had told him something extremely interesting back during the beta. There were certain sword skills that could only be learned by equipping a certain, named weapon. Once learned through this weapon, the skill could be used indefinitely so long as a corresponding weapon was equipped. Each of these named weapons could only teach the skill once, however. It was a very interesting addition to the game, at the time. Now it was something that could save someone's life in a dire situation.

Argo looked over to Lelouch, noticing the sudden change in posture that suggested he had a weapon. Smirking, she equipped her own claw, knowing he could tell she had done so.

The group entered the dungeon through a massive doorway, which lead them to a dark series of tunnels, lit by glowing green moss that grew on the walls. As the large raid group proceeded through the tunnels, it was inevitable that they would attract the local mobs. Soon, a squad of Kobold Swordsmen stood before them, backed with a three man cell of Kobold Archers.

While Archery was not available to players in SAO, the monsters had no such restrictions.

"Group A, shields up, be ready to block those Swordsmen. Group F, focus those archers ASAP!" Diabel shouted, knowing the very real threat that those archers posed. While their arrows were generally weak, a lucky shot for them could result in a one-shot crit kill on the level five-seven players that made up most of the group.

Amusingly enough, the members of group F were all at or above level seven, with Asuna being the lowest level, and Kirito the highest. Sprinting past the swordsmen, Kirito and Asuna each targeted an archer, making quick work of the small HP pool of the monsters. Lelouch and Argo both ran their target through with their claws, piercing it's hide at exactly the same time. Had one been looking from behind the archer, it would have appeared some demonic bastardization of a wolf and insect had shoved both hands through the rodent-looking creature.

The swordsmen had been defeated easily. It had only been a group of five mobs, excluding the archers, and the raid group consisted of thirty four people. They made swift work of all the dungeon mobs, one lucky fellow even leveling up from the effort, before reaching the boss room.

Diabel walked forward, leaving only a foot between the door and his person, before turning to adress his cohorts. "Let's win. Here we go!" He turned, pushing the large door open with one hand. It made for an inspiring sight, a lone man pushing open a large, black, skull riddled door with only his right hand. The image was somewhat ruined to the beta testers of the group, however, since they knew it was a pre-programmed response to the door being interacted with. Still, though, Diabel had used his charisma and the atmosphere to raise morale to an all time high.

He would've made a brilliant commander, Lelouch thought to himself.

The blue-haired knight walked into the darkened room, sword and shield before him defensively. The rest followed, group F taking the rear. "You know the drill, Argo. Hit them hard and fast, don't let them land a hit on us." Lelouch said, looking around the room cautiously.

"Yep, I got'cha Wain." She replied, eyes peeled for any movement. The duo instantly locked in on the first motion of the boss, seing a shadow stand from it's throne.

The room brightened, taking on eye opening colors of whites, blues, pinks, purples, and so on. Ivory pillars surrounded either side of a massive stripe of colored marbel, decorated with an odd pattern, which lead to a throne, before which stood a giant red being.

The creature, Illfang, was a dark red color, with a leathery hide. He wore no upper clothing, revealing a rotund but muscular physique, and his nethers were covered by a light purple loincloth. At his back was a sheathed blade, likely the Tulwar he would swap to once his final health bar reached red. He wore a skullcap that covered his scalp, revealing the rest of his marsupial-like features to the group. Equipped, currently, were his axe and buckler shield.

Illfang roared, revealing his four bars of HP, and summoning three smaller kobolds before him. Each was equipped with a two handed mace that looked as though it had been created by tearing a large chunk of rock from a mountain, and mounting it upon a shaft. They wore armor that vastly resembled olden knight armor, including a visored helm. With another roar, the Kobolds charged.

"ATTACK!" Diabel shouted, swinging his blade forward as a signal. Twenty nine brave men raced forward to defeat the foe before them, pushing on with their desire to win, to return home and see their friends and families, and to end this death game.

Behind them were five others. Diabel who remained out of combat in order to guide the remainder of the group, a sound decision since he had a perfect view of the battle from his position, continued to shout orders to the parties, telling them when to switch out, when to strike heaviest, and when to block the bosses strikes. The group was making quick work of the bosses health bar, with no one falling below half health.

The Ruin Kobold Sentinels continued to spawn, currently four were out on the field. Diabel nearly called for group D to go and aid the other four, but his words caught in his throat as he saw the destruction the quartet continued to rain down upon any kobold foolish enough to try and aid their lord. Diabel smiled widely, before continuing to redirect the attackers. Group F would be just fine.

And fine they were.

Asuna and Kirito worked surprisingly well with one another, like a well oiled machine. Kirito would bash away the Sentinel's mace, leave a slash across it's body, and dash off to another. Asuna followed quickly behind, landing a veritable hailstorm of stabs from her rapier into the monster, easily shredding it's health bar. One Sentinel spawned directly beside Kirito, and it looked like he had been caught off guard. That illusion was shattered when he shoved his blade up and under the Sentinel's visor, landing a massive critical hit and dropping almost all of the creture's health. He swiftly leaped back, replaced just as swiftly by Asuna, who's rapier pierced the monster's head, finishing it off.

"Good work, keep it up!" Kirito shouted to Asuna, as he shoved another Sentinel's mace away.

"Same to you!" Asuna shouted, lunging in through the opening Kirito had made, killing yet another kobold.

If one were to inspect Lelouch and Argo, they would compare them to a well oiled machine... that was on fire. It wasn't that the two were doing poorly, or that their teamwork was off, but it was simply how _hectic_ the fight looked. Neither Lelouch nor Argo stood still for even a second, constantly tearing into one Sentinel or another. Often times they would release both release sword skills on a Sentinel, causing it to stumble, before dashing off to another and performing the same act, alternating between the injured and fresh Sentinels and picking off any in critical condition in a single strike.

It was a deadly dance, as frightening as it was mesmerizing. The duo were a veritable twister of claws, needles, and shuriken.

"All enemies below twenty five percent health!" Lelouch shouted. "Move in for the kill." He continued, dashing forward to do just that. The Sentinel he had targeted was the highest HP percentage out of the group of nearly seven scattered about Argo and him. While they hadn't taken a single hit from any of the kobolds, the enemies HP had slowly been picked off by basic attacks and sword skills. The second group of Kobolds to spawn on Lelouch and Argo were all still alive, though easily within "oneshot" status, unlike this one which was still "fresh". He deftly avoided it's clumsy swing, performing a devastating kick to it's head, rattling it's brain for a moment. While it was disorientated, he launched into the most damaging sword skill he had available, Dance of Death. Despite it's name, it was not even among the top tier of Claw skills that were unlocked through extensive training.

Lelouch roared, his claw taking on a dark purple glow as he began his attack. First came a horizontal strike across the beast's abdomen, which curved back around into a slanted strike that tore through it's chest. The claw, which was now by the Sentinel's head, cleaved directly across the skull, critting and dealing massive damage due to the weakness of the area assaulted. The finisher of the combo was shown when Lelouch performed a full three hundred and sixty degree turn with the momentum of the horizontal cleave, thrusting the claw directly through the kobold's helmet, ending it's life. As the body of his recent kill deteriorated into particles, Lelouch noticed another Sentinel charging him, mace held high in an attempt to crush him. He kicked off of the body as it burst into particles, locking on to the exposed neck of the roaring Sentinel rushing his way with reckless abandon. Three shuriken seemingly materialized in his hands, before he launched them into the abnormally long neck all Kobold's shared as a racial feature. The trio of throwing stars fit snugly, all three critically striking and dealing double damage from the massive weak point. The Sentinel fell on it's face before dying, leaving three throwing stars that Lelouch collected quickly before rushing off to finish yet another Sentinel.

Argo was much more brutal in her methods. She fired off needle after needle, seemingly carrying and endless amount, into every inch of exposed skin on the Sentinels before her, bringing three of them down to critical condition in a matter of seconds and a storm of metal. She licked her lips in a manner that resembled a predatory animal spotting injured prey, before dashing off at speeds that would be a blur to most of the "normal" members of the raid. Her claw, which was a glove that had a trio of thick, long, solid black claws, and was decorated with ivory fur, found purchase within the neck of one Sentinel, ending it's life in a burst of pixels. Before it had deteriorated fully, Argo launched herself off of it's body and shot at the second Sentinel like an arrow, tucking into a roll as she came close to the creature, which had caused it to miss it's heavy swing, unbalancing it. Her roll ended with her springing back to her feet, tearing the green-glowing claw across the neck of the Sentinel, ending it's existence. She jumped high into the air to avoid another heavy swing from a Sentinel which had tried to attack from her blind spot, which was ineffective since the girl could hear it's clanky armor from a mile away. From above, she activated a sword skill, her claw taking on a brilliantly bright green. "Pounce!" She yelled, dive-bombing the Sentinel.

Wolf Pounce, the hidden sword skill of the Dire Wolf Paw. Simple, brutal, effective. Basically it was a massive heavy hitter, guaranteeing a crit and multiplying the base damage of the claw by four. The drawback of the skill was that it, unlike most claw-related sword skills, had a decent cooldown time. Which would leave Argo vulnerable to counter attack if the enemy survived...

Luckily for her, the weakened kobold stood no chance against the blitzkrieg, amplified as it was by the sword skill and gravity. It dispersed instantly into particles, and left Argo crouching for a few moments where it had once been. Another Sentinel, one of two remaining, ran at her with it's mace held far out to it's side, aiming for a horizontal strike. The moment of vulnerability from he attack was over, however, and she ducked beneath the swing, plunging her glowing claw into the creatures throat.

She looked over to see Lelouch had finished off his last Sentinel aswell, and that no more seemed to be spawning. Ki-bou and Susu had finished theirs off sooner, and had managed to catch the entire spectacle. Both of them looked quite impressed.

As they should be, considering the time between Lelouch ordering to finish them off and now equaled about twenty seconds.

The four members of group F regrouped, noting that she kobolds had stopped spawning. The reason why was shown as they heard a horrendous roar. They turned to see Illfang throwing his shield and axe away, and placing his hand on the hilt of his sheathed tulwar.

"Stand back, I'll go!" Diabel shouted, rushing forward, seemingly intending to finish the boss on his own.

"What is he doing?" Lelouch questioned. "We were all supposed to surround it!" It was then that Diabel glanced back at their group, giving a knowing smirk.

"He's going for the LA bonus." Argo muttered. Well if that didn't confirm his beta status, nothing would. "He knows the fight, he should b- Wait!" She cut herself off, a sudden panic reaching her voice.

The cause for her panic was revealed as Illfang removed his secondary blade. It wasn't a tulwar, but a no-daichi. While Diabel's rush attack may have worked on a tulwar wielder, as the blade was slower to swing than his own, and possible to avoid with some caution, it would have no effect on something wielding a blade as fast as that no-daichi. This was something that Kirito, Argo, and Lelouch knew since two had been above this dungeon floor and seen wielders of katana-type weapons, and another had done that _and _made it her job to know as much about any in-game aspect she could learn.

Even so, they were helpless to stop what happened next. The trio rushed forward as quickly as they could, but even Argo and Lelouch, who made speed a top priority, couldn't reach Diabel in time to save him from his mistake.

Kirito still screamed at the top of his lungs, praying that he would be heard and his warning heeded. "NO! LEAP BACK AS FAST AS YOU CAN!"

While Diabel heard nothing, another man saw the frantic boy rushing forward, and heard his warning.

Illfang leaped backwards, rendering Diabel's sword skill useless as he retreated from it's range, incurring the cool-down associated with heave strikes such as the knight's attack, before bouncing off of the pillars in the room, building up momentum before he dived directly at Diabel, who had just regained his ability to move freely, a second too late. The giant blade cut him from shoulder to hip, flinging him away. Had it ended there, he would have gotten back up, shaken, but able to continue fighting.

It didn't end there. Illfang dashed forward at speeds a being like him should not be able to reach, cleaving Diabel once more, sending him flying behind the group. Kirito changed directions, rushing towards the injured man in an attempt to save his life. As he ran, he quickly pulled out an extremely valuable item. A full heal elixir, something only attainable by completing a ridiculously difficult quest that required the killing of two hundred and fifty dire wolves.

"Why would you do that?" Kirito asked, pushing the potion towards the mouth of the man, who's health was rapidly vanishing. He gasped in panic as Diabel grasped his hand, preventing him from using the potion.

Diabel knew just what was in Kirito's hands, having intended to come back once he had leveled up a few times and completing the quest when it was trivial to do so. "You were in the beta. You know what I was doing." He said, giving a sad smile. He had been so arrogant...

"You were after the last attack rare item bonus..." Kirito muttered balefully. Was a rare drop REALLY worth his life? Was he insane? Why wouldn't he take the damn potion? Kirito tried to push it towards his lips once more, but Diabel's grasp held firm.

The man shook his head pitifully. "Please... protect them. Defeat the boss. I know you can do it. Don't let them down, give everyone hope. Please." He begged, his health dropping to zero. He smiled bitterly. "I was such a fool..."

Those were the last words of Diabel, the knight who had united the first raid group of Aincrad. As his body disappeared, and his name was crossed out from the Monument of Life, Kirito felt his resolve strengthen.

While he had thought only of surviving in this death game, Diabel had racked up the courage to bring together thirty two other brave souls, had the knowledge to lead them to the boss, and the confidence to assure their victory. He had been in the beta, and yet he had tried so hard to help everyone clear the game.

No more. Kirito would not allow his sacrifice to be in vain. Illfang died today.

He saw the main group fearfully fending off the boss as it roared at them, and hear Asuna step up beside him. "I'll go too." She announced.

Lelouch and Argo ran up behind the duo, their intentions obvious. "Give us an opening and we'll rip these thing to shreds." Argo growled, fury overtaking her.

The hooded boy nodded in agreement, the event having struck a chord in him due to it's similarity to Urabe's death. "His death will not be in vain." Lelouch said, simply.

"Thank you." Kirito said to them, before leading the charge. The other three easily kept up with him as he ran. "We'll do it just like the sentinels!" He shouted. "I'll make an opening, capitalize on it!" He yelled.

The rest of the raid group all watched in awe as the blue-garbed Kirito and the three hooded fighters dashed forward, at speeds that left their mouths agape.

Illfang was less impressed, simply charging up a sword skill. Kirito wasn't phased, matching it with his own. The force of the two meeting sent Kirito flying back several feet, and made Illfang stumble. "SWITCH!" He shouted, as Asuna dashed in to rain strike after strike upon the lord of kobolds. Much to her surprise, not that she let it show, the other two hooded fighters had reached the boss before her, raining vicious combos upon his back and sides. With the assault up as it was, Illfang didn't even have a chance to counter Asuna as her rapier struck him time after time. Kirito rushed back to join the fray, only to be launched back alongside the other three as Illfang displayed an aoe knockback skill, sending the quartet into a tangled heap of limbs. The sheer force of the skill had managed to tear apart the cloaks worn by Asuna, Argo, and Lelouch.

Before they had a chance to right themselves, Illfang was upon them. Lelouch and Kirito, who had landed in such a manner that they were infront of the girls, quickly threw their weapons up in a half-assed attempt to block, that would most certainly get them killed. Be that as it may, however, they were willing to face the consequences to protect the two behind them, who had no time to dodge or throw up a defense.

"Haaaaaahyaaah!" A deep voice roared, as a green blur passed above the heads of the downed players. Illfang's pink sword skill was stopped mid strike by the furious strength of their savior, Egil. The four of them watched in shock as the rest of the raid ran forward, their confidence and vigor renewed. "You guys recover for a moment, we'll hold him off!" The broad man shouted, moving in to help the rest of the group.

Kirito's relieved look was replaced by determination as he saw Illfang use what seemed to be a watered down version of his previous knockback, before hopping into the air with intent to finish the devastating combination. "I'll get you first!" He shouted, charging up a blue sword skill and leaping into the air, countering the strike of the boss by going directly for his belly, drawing a clockwise cut into his flesh as they tangled into the air, before launching the kobold back to earth in a heap.

"One last strike, together!" Kirito yelled, the others falling into line behind him. "YAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" He roared, slicing across Illfangs stomach, followed by Asuna landing several strikes to his abdomen, soon replaced by Argo shoving her claw into his gut, seemingly running up his body dragging it along, making a massive jagged cut. This was followed by several glowing blurs as ten shuriken lodged themselves into the boss, followed by another Dance of Death from Lelouch, before he leaped away, leaving Illfang low enough for a final, terrifying slice from Kirito, who cleaved the boss in half.

As Illfang burst into a shower of brightly colored pixels, which fell across the room like confetti before dispersing, a stunned silence fell over the room. It was broken by an ecstatic yell of "YES!" Followed by rousing cheers from all but one man. All around him, Kibaou saw the members of the raid cheering over their victory, praising one another for their excellent work, stating their relief at finally defeating the first boss...

It made him so angry... Did none of them realize just what a hollow victory this was? The room darkened, and it was as though his mood darkened more to match it. He stared hard at the panting figure of the blue-garbed boy who had killed Illfang. His blood boiled as he heard people _congratulating _him, when he knew the truth. He had let Diabel die! He knew beforehand the boss would use that blasted no-daichi rather than a tulwar. He knew and he kept it to himself! Kibaou would NOT let this stand! He stood up, shouting at the top of his lungs. "WHY!"

Everyone stopped, their celebrations and congratulations ceased. "Why did you let Diabel die?" Kibaou asked, his voice quiet, but it carried in the large room.

Kirito's eyes widened. "Let him die..." He repeated, as if confused.

How dare he? How DARE this bastard pretend he didn't know. Kibaou roared in fury. "OF COURSE! You knew about that technique the boss used, if you had told us up front, then Diabel would still be with us, HE WOULD BE CELEBRATING, AND THERE WOULD BE SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE ABOUT!" Tears streamed down his eyes. While he and Diabel had met only a day before, they had hit it off and become good friends overnight. Now that friendship was gone before it could come to be.

Another man, one of Kibaou's friends if the way they had all sat back was any indication, yelled with his finger outstretched. "He must be a beta tester! It's how he knew the bosses attack patterns!" And another thought hit him. "There must be other beta testers here. SHOW YOURSELVES!" He shouted.

Tensions built up quickly, everyone looking around the room, seeking to glare at anyone who they suspected of being a beta tester. Needless to say, Argo and Lelouch made themselves as unnoticeable as they could, both leaning against one of the pillars. Lelouch's head was down, letting his raven hair fall over his face. Argo was also looking at the floor, though for different reasons than Lelouch.

'It's my fault... I published faulty information... that's why he died.' The girl thought to herself, tears welling up in her eyes. Her sniffles attracted attention from the boy beside her, and he quickly determined just what was going through her mind.

"It isn't your fault." He whispered.

She looked up at him, eyes watery. "Why not? I'm the one they got the boss info from, and it was wrong. Diabel died because he thought he knew what would happen. He died because my information was wrong Lelouch." She whispered back heatedly.

"He died because he was arrogant." Lelouch whispered, knowing it would sound harsh. But he felt it was the truth. "He threw caution to the wind and ended up dying for it."

"He didn't feel like caution was needed because I had written exactly how the boss would act!" She replied, her whispers getting steadily louder.

Lelouch quickly reached out, hugging her to his side as he had before. "Would you have done that, Argo?" He asked, soothingly. "Even with all the information you had, would you have rushed out alone to fight a boss, knowing your life was on the line?"

The girl shook her head, small sobs wracking her frame. "N-no, but _he _did. And now he's dead." She whimpered.

Lelouch sighed, deciding to just hold her until she calmed enough to see his point. He knew she would. She was just stressed right now.

As the first signs of shouting accusations broke out among the raid group, Kirito began laughing. Almost hysterically. "A beta tester?" He asked, rhetorically. His sudden laughter and statement made everyone in the room go quiet, as the blue-garbed boy began walking through the parted group. "Don't insult me by comparing me to those newbies." He exclaimed.

"WHAT!" Yelled Kibaou, the unofficial spokesman for the group of dissenters.

Kirito began to walk towards him, speaking as he went. "Most of the thousand beta-testers were utter beginners. Many had no MMO background before this. Some didn't even know how to level properly. Had SAO been what it is now, back then, they would have been the first to die." The morbid statement sent shivers down the spines of many of the gathered men. "Everyone in this room is better than the average beta tester."

Argo felt Lelouch stiffen, as though something said had struck a chord within him. She looked up through her teary eyes to see Lelouch's own were beginning to water.

'... To bring peace, he will make himself the target of their hatred. I see. Kirito... you have my respect.' Lelouch thought to himself, memories of that ill-fated encounter on the Ikaruga taking over his mind. How he had laughed... insulted them. How he had tricked them all into believing that everything he had done for them was a lie... all to protect her. How he begged Rolo to stop, after having denounced him as his little brother... how his resolve, nearly broken, had reforged itself.

Yes, Kirito was going to be a force to be reckoned with. He was well worth respect. He felt the tears fall from his eyes, quickly wiping them away lest someone see. Argo, however, had noticed far too long ago not to bring it up at a later date.

Kirito continued his speech, his posture and tone dripping with arrogance. "I am infinitely better than them. I made it further in the beta then anyone else." He shrugged, switching to a more conversational tone, though still reeking of self-worth. "I knew about the bosses skills because I had seen monsters with katana skills high above this floor. While the information on this boss and those above it a surely changed, I'll have no problems with them. I'm simply a cut above. I know a lot. Way more than any information broker."

Had Argo been in any condition to dispute that, and had she not realized what he was doing, she would have been outraged. 'Ki-bou is clearing my name...' She thought to herself. "Why is he doing this..." Argo whispered to herself.

"You know why." Lelouch replied. "He is going to unify them in their hatred of him..."

Argo couldn't help but shiver, something disturbing having reached her thoughs. "Just like the Demon Emperor did..." She realized. However, Ki-bou and Lelouch vi Britannia were two infinitely different people. While the Demon Emperor had unified the world though hatred, he hadn't done so with benevolent intentions... or had he? Her thoughts jumbled as she tried to stop thinking about something as terrifying as the thought that Lelouch vi Britannia had forced the world to hate him with the sole intent of bringing peace after his death.

"No, Lelouch vi Britannia had no intention of uniting the world under any banner but his own. He was a tyrant. While he may have intended to make the world better in the long run, he paved the roads with blood. He was scum." Lelouch couldn't help but want to hurt himself for denying his own plan so fervently, but thinking along the lines Argo was treading was far too dangerous for him to let her do so. To even suggest that the Demon Emperor was anything but just that, a demon, was blasphemy at this point. Perhaps in a century or two, he'd see just how his reign was viewed by individual parties. But for now, he was a cold hearted scoundrel who wanted to watch the world burn. "He and Kirito are nothing alike."

It almost pained him to say that, when he had been comparing similarities just moments ago in his head.

Kibaou had snapped out of his stupor, declaring Kirito worse than a beta tester. He had said that he was a filthy cheater. Another man in the crwd had come up with the term Beater.

Upon hearing this, Kirito grinned. "Beater, eh? I like it." With that, he equipped the Cloak of Midnight, a rare drop he had received for killing Illfang. The coat was dark, and covered his body. It flowed as if blown by the wind. He looked down-right sinister as he walked off. "Yes, that's right. Don't confuse me with those other testers." He scoffed. "I'm better than that."

And with that said, he walked to the staircase, leaving a stunned group behind him. Asuna chased after him.

Moments later, the party that Lelouch and Argo were in was dissolved by Kirito.

Minutes later, the raid members began to clear out, some heading for the second floor, and others heading back to declare victory over the first boss.

An hour later, Lelouch still held Argo, the duo both seated by a pillar. "Ne... Lulu." The girl said.

"Yes?" He asked in reply.

"Wanna spend the night with me in that cottage?" She asked, completely seriously. "T-theres more than one bed..." She quickly added, recalling how he had reacted the last time. "I just don't wanna be alone for a while..."

Lelouch's hand moved, soon finding a spot on her head as he ruffled her hair. "Yeah, that's fine." He said. "We better hurry before someone else gets it."

Argo giggled. "You, me, and a few others know it exists. Out of all those people, we're probably the fastest, and can get around easiest on floor two." She nodded, hopping to her feet. "But, just in case. C'mon!" She shouted, grabbing his arm and pratically dragging him with her as they ran up the steps.

Lelouch laughed. "Glad to see you're feeling better."

"I'm glad to feel better. You've got that effect on me Lulu, maybe I'm in love." She teased.

"Let's hope not. I've been told I'm not easy to love."

And it seemed like everyone who loved him got the short end of the stick at some point. Shirley was proof of that.

Hopefully this was just more of her teasing, because he really didn't want yet another incident in this death game bringing up painful memories from the past.

'Oh well.' Lelouch decided. 'For better or worse, I'm stuck in this world if I want to get everyone else out. May aswell make the best of it.'

And honestly, a hot bath and a soft bed were a few comforts he could really use right about now.

Though the bath would be waiting until after Argo was finished, because frankly he was not going to get in between that girl and her bath time.

And he'd probably have to deal with her trying to get him to join her in the onsen anyway, which was going to be awkward as hell for him, and funny for her.

... And he was actually a bit iffy about sleeping with her nearby, come to think of it.

Why did he agree to this again?


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own Code Geass. I'm surprised this has another chapter so soon. I've also tried to improve my grammatical errors, and I may or may not have corrected my spelling of Agil's name. (The subtitles said "Egil", however everything else has it listed as Agil, so I'll just call him that from now on.)

Responses to reviews.

ShogunAssasin44: Thanks for the praise, though I feel like you're laying it on a bit thick. I'm sure it's not that good of an opening chapter. (Don't bloat my ego, it's the last thing I need :3)

As for the rest of your review, namely on in-game Lelouch and the fake identity, I'll start with Alan Spacer. I've used it as his "alternate" name in my Vandread crossover, though he had it changed to Lelouch after a "Falling out" he had with his guardian. A few others have used it as an alias of his, too, so I'm not the only one to remember it. As for Lelouch's ingame abilities, you pretty much hit the nail on the head. Good job there, really. I took the "ninja" thing from Sayoko, obviously, the speed/acrobatics thing was inspired by Suzaku, and the claw as a weapon choice was Jeremiah's influence. Lelouch simply managed to combine the three into what he does now. And, honestly, I couldn't imagine Lelouch as a heavy-weapon user or tank. It was either claws or a rapier in my mind, and while I toyed with a rapier using Lelouch I finally decided on claws after recalling something that will become obvious in this chapter.

DarkAap: I'm glad you liked it, and also glad you think I've kept them in character. Someone in the reviews actually pointed out something OOC of Lelouch, and upon reviewing I decided to change it. Hopefully I'll be able to keep playing with character back-grounds/intros for a bit, while it may be somewhat boring I'd like everyone to know where certain characters stand at the moment.

cj1of4: No worries on having Lelouch pulled out of the game. I'm sure you'll find C.C. understands this is a bit more important than pizza (For the moment.) And the thought of Demon Emperor themed boss has crossed my mind, but not sure how/if it'll be implemented.

Revenent: You've got a very good point, and I'm already ahead of you.

MisterSP: I saw your point and made a change to reflect that. Thanks for pointing it out. If you see anything else like that, tell me so.

Also, there may be some shockers for you guys in this chapter.

* * *

Lelouch awoke to the feeling of a soft bed beneath him, surrounded by the warmth of the fluffy blankets and pillows that made up the bed set. It was quite the refreshing feeling, considering he normally awoke to an averagely comfortable bed with a single blanket and pillow. But, as with many of the lesser known areas in SAO, the cottage Argo had found was a cut above in comfortable living.

It was only a ten minute walk from the main city, though it was far enough out of the way that no one ever bothered to visit, and no quests took players out in that direction. It was that fact that had originally drawn Argo to explore the area, since no one else had taken the time to. Upon finding the house, an NPC from Urbus would spawn a few feet into the woods, stumbling upon you as you inspected the place. He would offer to rent the home out to you at a modest price, and you could either accept or decline.

It was really that simple.

As far as furnishings went, the cottage had a kitchen and dining room, three bedrooms, the onsen, and a large living room. The bedrooms were all upstairs, and the bath was in the very back of the house. The place had actually been built over a natural hot spring, it seemed.

Lelouch yawned, stretching out lazily. He wasn't sure whether or not he actually wanted to get out of bed...

The decision was taken out of his hands as a widely grinning girl wearing a shirt that was large enough to act like a dress ran into the room, hopping onto the bed and it's occupant. "Ne, ne, ne, Lulu, wake up, c'mon!" She bounced up and down like a young girl on Christmas day trying to awaken their parents. "We've got a visitor!" She yelped as Lelouch suddenly sat up, her face a scant few inches from her own.

"What?" He asked. Who could she possibly be talking about? Who even knew this place existed anyway? "Who in the world would come visit only a day after you rented the cottage?" Lelouch wondered.

Argo tilted her head cutely, for no reason other than because she could. "Are you saying I don't have friends, Lulu? That's mean." She stated, simply. A bright smile suddenly came over her face. "It's Ursal."

Lelouch's eyes widened slightly, a small smile making it's way to his lips. "Seriously?" He asked. The frantic nod he got in return made him chuckle. "Well, let's go greet him. As soon as I get dressed." He was currently garbed in only a pair of pants.

"Awww~, d'you have to?" Argo pouted. "I'm enjoying the view."

"All the more reason to dress myself."

"Spoil-sport."

"Perv."

"Yep."

"Uhg..."

After the duo had equipped their clothing, Lelouch making certain to use his spare cloak, they met with Ursal, who had been waiting in the living room for them. Oddly enough, Ursal was much the same as his avatar had been. Tall, lanky, but with shorter hair and a scar on his cheek. The same laid-back smile took up it's spot on his face, brightening a bit as he saw the two walk down-stairs.

"Argo, Gawain, s'good to see you again." He greeted. "With all the chaos brought on by Kayaba, I wasn't sure if Gawain had survived." The man continued. While he had known Argo was alive and well due to his connections in the info-world of SAO, Gawain was not so easily traceable. Unless one asked the font of information known as Argo.

Lelouch nodded. "I was overjoyed to hear you had survived. How have you been?" He asked.

"Well enough. When this all started, I spent nearly a week moping. I have kids, y'know? How was Kayaba so willing to part the lot of us? But then I figured I better start grinding levels, getting higher, and helping out so that I could get back to see them sooner. If not, then that bastard wins."

"Frankly, Kayaba Akihito has already won." Argo cut in. "His entire goal, so he said, was to create SAO and trap ten thousand players within until they clear the final boss. If that's all he wanted, he already got it." She finished bitterly.

Ursal frowned. "Well, when you put it that way." He muttered. He quickly brightened back up, though. "Still, when I get out and see the smiling faces of my children again, I can't think of that as anything but a win for me. Surely you've got someone on the outside you wanna get back to see?"

Yes, Argo did have someone she wanted to see. But her mother may not survive long enough for them to complete this game, especially if the entire situation with SAO stresses her out more than normal... her health couldn't take a hit like that, Argo was certain. Perhaps that was why the topic of the day embittered her so. Even if Kayaba failed to get her killed, this stunt of his may be the nail in her mother's coffin. She prayed it wasn't the case.

Lelouch had spent a lot of time manipulating people, even before his Geass had come into play. And as such, he was adept at figuring out what was going through the minds of people, given certain information. In the case of Argo, he quickly came to realize just what her put her in such poor spirits. With her mother's poor health, and the stress the woman must be in from this tragedy, she would likely have to be hospitalized. And she may not even make it until the hundredth floor was cleared.

As sorry as he felt for her, there wasn't really anything Lelouch could do for her.

Ursal coughed. "Sorry for bringing up any hard feelings." He said. "I actually came here to tell Argo about something I learned from an NPC in Urbus, today. Exchanging pleasantries was just a side-benefit." Seeing he had their attention, he continued. "I heard, in passing, an NPC talking with another about a strange golem wandering around the mountains. When I talked to him on the subject, he marked it's location on my map, and said something about an old local legend. I asked further, and he gave me all the details I could ever need." Ursal smirked. "The golem is called Hand of Ruan, and is said to wield a pair of claw type weapons. There was apparently something extremely special about them, and he's supposed to drop _two _of the named items, Ruin Claw."

Argo tried to stifle a gasp, and Lelouch's eyes widened. "Two of them?" He asked, shocked.

Ursal continued, quickly. "Yeah, but that's not all. They're supposed to have some special effect when two people in a party are each using one. The NPC didn't go into much detail, but it seemed really promising." His grin dampened slightly. "However, there is a problem. This Hand of Ruan is not a pushover. As a matter-of-fact, it is an extremely dangerous monster. I've got no idea how it fights, but the guy told me it could "crush a bear in a single blow", so it's got to have high attack damage. It may be able to oneshot. And, as a golem, it will have very high health and very few weak points, being an inorganic mob."

The duo frowned. Golems were hard to deal with for claw-users, moreso than most other monsters. Golems were immune to poisons, save a certain few tailored specifically to deal with them, though the items to make such poisons didn't appear until floor five, and they were more acid than poison. Golems were also sorely lacking vulnerable places, since they were solid rock. Another attribute they had in common with stone was a resistance to critical strikes. And, to top it off, they had a resistance to Slash damage.

In other words, Claw users did not have much luck with golems.

Suddenly, Argo perked up. "Hey, Wain, let's get Ki-bou to help!" She suggested rapidly. "With Ki-bou there to block the golem's attacks, we can focus on killing it."

Lelouch pondered it for a moment. "Yes, that could work. Kirito is on your friends list, correct?" He asked. At her nod, he hummed thoughtfully. "Send him a message, ask if he would like to help us deal with a powerful monster. Tell him there's something in it for him. If he accepts, tell him to meet us here."

Argo blinked. "What? Whattaya mean something in it for him?" She asked.

"A pair of boots with a bonus to one handed sword skills." At her questioning look, Lelouch shrugged. "It dropped while I was grinding the dungeon for smoke bomb ingredients, and I have no use for it. I intended to sell it for a hefty sum." And it would have drawn in quite the profit. The bonus was nothing spectacular, but boots with specific effects like this were extremely rare.

The girl shrugged, opening her message box, only to blanch as she saw just how may messages she had. She laughed nervously, before opening the Send Message panel. A manner of moments later, she received a response. "Ki-bou says he's in... and now to catch up on business..." She muttered, opening and rapidly reading message after message, stopping occasionally to write a response. She would be doing this for quite some time.

Which left Lelouch to bid Ursal farewell. "Thank you again for this, Ursal. Stay safe." He said, as the man walked outside, having stopped at the door to transfer the map information.

"It's no problem. You were one'a my favorite customers back in the beta, least I can do is help you'n Argo out some." Just before he breached the treeline, he noticed something stick into a tree nearby him. Having a good idea of what it was, he found a shuriken pinning a pouch to a tree. He laughed aloud, before plucking the shuriken and pouch off the tree, the later going directly into his stash of Col, while he twirled the former around his finger idly. "Same ol' Gawain."

* * *

Kirito, Lelouch, and Argo made their way through the mountainous area with a decent amount of caution, considering just how close they were to the Wastelands, easily the most dangerous place on the floor, save the dungeon itself.

"We're closing in on the location. Everyone ready?" Lelouch asked.

"Yep."

"Yes."

"Good. Try to sneak up on it for some bonus damage." He suggested, doing just that. Of the three, Lelouch's sneak skill was the highest, with Argo's close behind. Kirito's was passable.

The passed another craggy ridge, revealing a large clearing, filled with ruined buildings of times long past. "Remember, it's a golem." Argo warned quietly. "In territory like this, they can hide just as well as we can..."

The golem had not been hiding. It simply stood from it's resting place, it's full height just over ten feet. It's body was smooth and shiny, as though the black stone comprising it was polished frequently. It's feet were shaped like regal boots, it's entire body seemingly formed with the intent to bring awe to those around it. Red gemstones were inlaid into the shoulders of the creature, forming a rough "X". It's arms were proportioned with the rest of it's body in mind, unlike many other golems which had oversized spikes for arms rather than appendages. This one also had fully fledged hands, another oddity among it's creature type. The hands themselves seemed to be formed from a golden looking stone, and the fingers had serrated blades on their inner sides.

It's head caught Lelouch's attention. The head of the golem looked somewhat humanoid, with the exception of two large protrusions atop it's head that resembled ears, and a short visor covering it's glowing ruby eyes. "No way..." He muttered.

Kirito and Argo both frowned. "Uhm, doesn't that thing look familiar? I can't help but feel I've seen something like it before." Kirito mumbled.

Argo answered quickly. "It looks like it was based off of the Gawain, the first flight enabled knightmare frame, which was used by Zero as his personal knightmare until it was destroyed during the first battle for Tokyo."

Kirito nodded. "Ah yeah, I see the similarities now. Guess Kayaba was inspired by it." He noted. "So... should we attack?"The boy asked.

Lelouch nodded tersely. "Yeah, you initiate on it, Argo and I will blindside it. If it looks like things are going down-hill, run. I'll cover our escape with a smoke bomb." He was, understandably, a bit wary of this creature. If it was inspired by the Gawain, and was supposed to have claw weapons, he could only think of one attribute of the knightmare that fit the bill. "Watch out for it's hands. If it's based off the Gawain, then it's fingers might act like slash harkens... and it may have a beam attack."

Was this what people felt like staring down the Gawain in their Sutherlands?

Kirito dashed towards the golem, revealing it to have only one health bar, thankfully. With a terrifyingly fast cut, he opened up a rift on the golem's chest, that quickly closed up. From the amount of damage that did, it looked like this fight would take a while. It didn't have nearly as much health as Illfang had, but it still had a large amount. Kirito had only done a small percentage of it's health with his strike.

But still, Argo and Lelouch charged in quietly, remaining unseen due to their sneaking skill. As soon as they entered attack range, they struck the golem on both sides of it's waist with a three hit combo, before backing off quickly. Their sneak-bonus having doubled the damage, regardless of crit, left them staring at another small chunk of the creature's hp-bar disappearing. If this thing wasn't resistant to slash attacks, things would be so much easier.

The golem's basic attack pattern seemed to consist of wide slashes, which made it easy for Kirito to dodge and block to his heart's content, opening routes of attack for Lelouch and Argo left and right. After five minutes of constantly lashing out at the Hand of Ruan, it simply stopped moving, arms crossing over it's chest, as it's health bar began depleting rapidly. It was in the red when the bar stopped moving.

Lelouch, erring on the side of caution, yelled out "MOVE! Move and don't stop!" Kirito and Argo complied easily, rushing about the field like mice, weaving in and out of pillars, behind and infront of ruined walls, and so on. Lelouch copied their actions.

It was a good thing, too, because suddenly the golem's shoulders glowed red, before each the five gems on them fired off a thick beam in the direction of the last known location of it's targets. The effect it created was similar to a security field of lasers, but this had the effect of tearing up the landscape as it pulsed outwards. The beams deteriorated, and the eyes of the golem lost their intense glow.

"It's weakened, go now!" Kirito yelled, having seen similar conditions inflicted on bosses above this floor after they released a powerful attack. The three of them fell into a triangle formation, Kirito at point, before charging the golem with intent to kill.

Unfortunately, Kirito was wrong. The Hand of Ruan suddenly stood back up, arms uncrossing and it's fingers launching at the trio, who made a very narrow escape. Lelouch and Argo had leaped back, while Kirito simply batted the projectiles away.

Lelouch frowned, pulling out three shuriken in his left hand. The throwing stars glowed a dark purple, before launching at the golem, aimed directly at it's eyes. The construct acted quickly, batting the stars away with it's hand. Lelouch grinned in a sinister fashion.

"It's eyes." He said simply, causing knowing grins to rise on the faces of his two companions.

They were a blur. Suddenly, Argo and Lelouch had appeared on either side of the golem, launching various thrown weapons at it's ruby eyes. Several were blocked by a quick motion of it's hands, but one needle found purchase in it's left eye, cracking the ruby that it used to see it's targets. The gem shattered, leaving an empty space that led to an unusual glow within it's head. If Lelouch's smile before was sinister, his grin now was downright demonic.

Most golems had only one major weak point; their Core. The Core was often hidden deep within it's rocky exterior, and thus quite difficult to hit with anything but a pierce-type weapon, which brought up the small weakness golems had towards piercing damage. However, should someone manage a lucky shot on the core... it was almost a guaranteed one-hit-kill. Argo had noticed the glow, and was cackling to herself quietly as she readied several needles. With nary a sound, the girl flung the metal needles at the face of the golem, which it blocked desperately.

All of a sudden, the fight had turned into a game of darts. All three of the party members would launch their thrown weapons at it's exposed core, while it would block with it's arms, prompting a barrage upon it's body. Throughout this all, the golem had been unable to counter-attack. Lelouch estimated it's current HP Value to be around ten percent.

And he was right, because ten percent hp was when the Hand of Ruan enraged. It uncovered it's face, moving forward at ridiculous speeds with all the force of a freight train. Kirito dodged, having been it's target with the rush. The golem grasped a stone about twice the diameter of it's eyehole, before shoving the rock directly into it as a cover. It turned back towards the group, it's fingers flying towards them at high speeds, not connected to the giant beast by any conventional means. Kirito simply diced through the ones that reached him, destroying them in a shower of pixels.

As each of the fingers were destroyed, the health of the Hand of Ruan seemed to drop. Soon, only one of the harken-finger-things were left, which reattached to the golem that was at ridiculously low health. It rushed sprinted forward at high speed, using it's last finger as a sword in an attempt to cleave Kirito in half. As it's attention was on the swordsman, it didn't notice the other two until their claws pierced it's skull, breaching through to the core, and causing it's destruction.

"We did it!" Argo shouted, lunging at Lelouch to catch him in a hug, which left her hanging off of his front. "What'd we get, what'd we get?" She chanted, looking over Lelouch's shoulder at the white panel that showed the item drops.

Lelouch did the same, noticing quickly the rare item listed. "Ruin Claw." He said.

"I got one too!" The girl exclaimed happily. She loved when these rumors were right.

"Whoa. I got a diamond." Kirito muttered. While he had no use for it at the moment, he knew it would sell for quite a bit at the market. Not only did NPC's pay hefty amounts for these gems, but they were used in upgrading weapons and some armors, and were quite rare. This, along with the pair of boots Lelouch had given him in exchange for his help, made the trip entirely worth the trouble.

Speaking of Argo and Lelouch, the two had equipped their new weapons and were looking them over.

The claws were identical, and looked to be made of the same polished stone as the Hand of Ruan. They covered the top of the hand, leaving the fingers completely free, which allowed the use of that hand for throwing weapons, in addition to the other hand. That by itself was a massive plus. The claw portion was a golden color, the blades about eighteen inches, the bracer they were mounted on was about a half a foot long. The claws themselves seemed to be thicker at the base, becoming marginally thinner as they got closer to the tip, the edges serrated in such a way that the claw would rip flesh from bone if used in an inward slash, or when stabbed in and pulled out of an enemy. Every few inches on the blades, it seemed like they became ever so slightly thinner, looking suspiciously familiar to Lelouch.

Suddenly something hit him, and he opened the inventory to look at the item's description, in depth. As he read, a grin formed on his face. With a twitch of his hand, the blades retracted within one another, leaving only the three inch base protruding. The gauntlet began to glow, before Lelouch lashed outwards. The claws shot out, revealing themselves to be connected by long strands of solid black wire. The blades caused deep gashes in the nearby ruins, before retracting back to their eighteen inch length.

"My friends, we've just found a hidden class of weapon." Lelouch chuckled. "These aren't claws." He pointed towards the item panel, indicating the weapon class, which was marked "?"

Back during the beta, there was no weapon database at all. The only thing that existed, even now, would be Argo's guidebook, which covered the basic weapons types, and gave brief overviews of more advanced weapon types. But, even so, it didn't contain information on items not yet found by her or others. Nothing but player discoveries would give more information on these things.

And, of course, the only way to get more information on these weapons was to have a blacksmith look them over with their Appraise Weapon skill, giving the smith the ability to forge weapons of that type, provided they had the right materials.

"Ne, Wain, let's go back to Starter City. Ki-bou needs to do something with that diamond of his, you probably wanna get these claws appraised, and I need to catch up on some business of my own." Argo suggested. "As of current, one of the best smiths has a stand in Starter City, and Egil has stand of his own. He's actually a successful merchant."

Kirito nodded. "Yeah, I've sold most of my monster drops to him. His prices are really cheap, so low-level players can actually get some decent equipment. It's why I've been selling almost exclusively to him."

"Buy cheap, sell cheap." Was Egil's motto. He was a really likable person, if a bit intimidating.

Lelouch hummed in thought. "Alright. We'll split up in Starter city. I'll have the weapons appraised, Argo can get her business done, and Kirito can sell or use the diamond as he pleases."

* * *

When Argo had told him the blacksmith was female, he was somewhat surprised. Female players were a minority in SAO, to see one having taken up smithing was quite the surprise. To see a girl was the highest level blacksmith in the game at the moment was downright odd.

And actually _seeing _the girl made him seriously wonder why she was a blacksmith. Her hair had been dyed a bright pink color, and had a single ribbon on the side. She wore a basic red and white smithing uniform, awarded by completing a blacksmith proficiency test, and was currently bent over an anvil slamming a hammer onto a piece of metal, which eventually became a sword.

After a brief transaction between her and her customer, the boy left happily with his new sword in-hand.

He decided to hold off on talking to her until after her busiest hour was over. It was usually around 4:00 that people began to swarm the market-place, and the time was currently 4:57. Fifteen minutes later, the crowd had cleared, the the girl was wiping sweat off her brow. "Wow, busy day today..." She sighed, contentedly. "It's a good thing my luck is as good as it is, or the system would've screwed me over on more than one upgrade today." The girl laughed.

Lelouch blinked. With all of her customers, she had failed only ONE upgrade? That was an astounding track record, considering the chances of upgrade failure were almost completely random at this level. He approached the girl, who was leaning against the wall that surrounded the market-place, sipping from a flask of what he presumed to be water. He allowed her to finish her drink before coughing into his hand to get her attention. "Hello, miss Lisbeth." He bowed slightly.

The girl gave him a quick once over, frowning a bit at his hooded appearance. People with hoods had things to hide, be they small or big. "Uhm... hi." She replied. "What can I do for you?" Lisbeth didn't get the slimey, sneaky vibe she associated with hooded people from this guy, so she would wait to call judgment on him.

"My party and I found a rare monster, The Hand of Raun, and killed it. It dropped these." He opened a trade window, and upon her acceptance Lisbeth gasped. Lelouch chuckled. "Yes, Argo reacted much the same. These items are an unidentified type of weapon."

"O-oh wow. An actual unidentified weapon type." Lisbeth whispered. "I would've never thought I'd be seeing that."

Lelouch shrugged. "I'd like you to appraise them, please. I'll pay for your services, of course."

Lisbeth nodded rapidly. "Sure, I'll get right on it!" The girl placed both claws into her inventory, before removing one and activation the Appraise weapon skill. About a minute later, she nodded. "Ruin Claw, a chain-claw weapon." She proceeded to read off the exact stats, which Lelouch compared to his current claw. This new item was an upgrade all around, and so it would be the same for Argo. Brilliant. She appraised the second claw, smiling brightly. She blinked as several white panels appeared around her, and her eyes widened at what she saw. "WOW!" She shouted. "Appraising th-that claw boosted my smithing skill by an enormous amount!"

"It looks like something else appeared, aswell." Lelouch offered, pointing at the other two panels.

The pinkette looked to the screen on her left, eyes widening as she read it. "I leveled up? From smithing?" She wondered, aloud. She was level eight now, a bit above the average in the group that had downed Illfang. While a good many didn't know this, attributing to the lack of info on SAO before release and the tense atmosphere of the death-game, leveling up crafting skills did give XP. Lisbeth would have noticed this had she not leveled up every time by killing monsters after smithing sprees, she had simply assumed leveling was that easy.

In truth, taking up a craft and leveling by gathering materials, crafting, and repeating was more efficient in the long run, simply grinding was the fastest way to level.

Lisbeth shook her head, turning to regard the final screen. "Oh? New upgrade types for claw weapons?" She muttered. This was new. Commonly, upgrades were simple "+1" or "+2" added to a weapon, this looked like a specific upgrade for a specific weapon type. "Uhm, it looks like it says here that I can make regular claw weapons into these chain-claw weapons if I have enough metal ore." She announced.

A large smile broke out over Lelouch's face, covered mostly by his hood. "That's wonderful. I guess I'll be visiting you more often." He opened a trade window, placing a thousand Col into it.

"I certainly hope so." Lisbeth replied, placing the two Ruin Claws into the trade window. "I think we could get along really well." She grinned.

Lelouch waved, turning to walk away...

... only to fall to the ground with a loud "Omph!" as he was glomped from the side. "Waaaaaaain! I'm back, did'ya miss me, huh, huh, did'ya?" It seemed Argo had taken care of her clients.

Recalling, with a light blush, what had happened the last time he asked her to get off of him, he simply stared at her. "Argo." He greeted.

"Wain." She replied, seemingly having no intent to remove herself any time soon.

Until, of course, Lisbeth lifted her by the back of her shirt and cloak. "I should'eve known you'd be involved once I saw the pair of claw-type weapons." She deadpanned.

Argo looked back over her shoulder with a nonchalant smile. "Hiya Lizzy." She greeted the pinkette, looking for all the world like a kitten who had been caught for the thousandth time playing with the chords of it's owners electronics. "How'eve you been?" A sharp smirk made it's way onto Argo's face as she performed an acrobatic maneuver that placed her on the shoulders of the blacksmith, the sudden shift in balance knocking her onto the downed Lelouch, as the mousy girl landed in a crouch, hands on her knees as she watched the embarrassed duo struggle to untangle themselves from one another.

"A-Argo!" Yelled Lisbeth, having managed to get herself into a sitting position. "D-don't do things like that in public!" She berated.

"Or at all." Lelouch supplied helpfully, having had to grab his hood both times he had been knocked over to prevent it from falling. "By the way, what business were you checking into, if I may ask?"

Argo sobered up instantly. She responded in a quiet voice. "I was looking into Diabel's history in SAO, because I could swear I had heard of him before. Turns out I was right." Her gaze turned downcast. "A university student by the name of Sasha has taken it upon herself to gather all of the younger children stuck here, and take care of them in the Church. And when I say younger, I mean the ones who had logged on with their parents account, or cheated the age restriction. The youngest confirmed is an eight year old." Argo heaved a heavy sigh. "Now, I know what you're thinking. "How does this relate to Diabel?", or "How does this Sasha girl take care of all of these children?". The answer to both is that Diabel was Sasha's boyfriend. Almost all of the Col Diabel got was put to use to give the children a semblance of comfort and normalcy."

Lisbeth, who hadn't been there for the meeting or subsequent boss battle, asked a question. "You said "was"... did something happen to Diabel?"

Argo acted as though she had been punched in the gut, falling backwards onto her bottom. "He died because my information was wrong."

"No, he died because he wanted to get the last hit on the boss for a rare item." Lelouch quickly countered, in an attempt to keep Argo from spiraling into depression again. It was then something hit him. 'He wanted the last attack bonus... to get Col for the children, didn't he?' Lelouch thought to himself, noting the other two widen their eyes as they came to the same realization.

"O-oh... oh my..." Lisbeth stuttered. Someone had tried to be the last to hit the first floor boss, in an attempt to gain money for the children his lover was taking care of. And worse, now said lover was alone, with the responsibility of taking care of several children. "H-how many children are there?" She asked.

Argo, in a bit of a daze, responded. "There are about fifty." Her mistake had killed off someone who had been selflessly donating almost all of his money to make the lives of those trapped children a little bit better. She felt filthy. Feeling a stare on her, the brunette looked up to see purple eyes staring into her own.

"It was not. Your. Fault." He stated, sternly. "Stop trying to blame yourself. It wasn't just YOUR information that was wrong, it was every beta-tester's information. The bosses above us may have changed aswell, if they have will you try to shoulder the blame yourself? Diabel was in the beta himself, it was his mistake that cost him. He didn't realize the boss was wielding a different weapon, or if he did he simply ignored it." He placed his hands on her shoulders, eyes only a few inches from her own. "Had you never published the information in the guidebook, Diabel still would have rallied a group to fight Illfang, and would still have tried for the last attack bonus. He would still have died." He pulled back from her, leaving her to fall bonelessly against the wall she had been crouching by. Lelouch glared at the small crowd of onlookers, something about his aura making it obvious that he would not tolerate their gawking. All of the spectators quickly moved on with their business, not wanting to incur the wrath of the rather frightening looking man. He sighed, before picking up the small girl and holding her bridal style, radiating gentleness and kindness like a beacon.

Lisbeth blushed heavily, something about his stern confrontation of Argo, the quick shift to an authoritative aura that commanded away the onlookers, and the even quicker transition to a saintly type of kindness as he gently cradled the small girl in his arms, allowing her to simply wrap her arms around his neck and bask in his warmth... it got to her.

To the pink haired girl, his voice came in a sensual whisper, while she knew he was simply whispering his goodbyes and thanks. "I'll be sure to visit as often as I can manage." And with that, he was gone in a blur.

Lisbeth shivered, arms wrapping around her torso as she blushed, allowing a brief fantasy of her being comforted by the strange, alluring figure known as...

Her fantasy came crashing down around her as she realized, with a baleful pout, that she hadn't gotten his name. Only the obvious and less flattering nickname Argo had given, Wain.

"Damn it..." The girl muttered in annoyance. Checking the time, and noting that it was nearly six, she couldn't help but wonder where the time had gone. She shrugged, heading back to her inn.

* * *

A man walked down a beaten path in the dense forest that lie directly outside of Urbus, carrying a small figure in his arms. "Thanks." The girl murmured, cuddling into his embrace. He seemed to be doing this a lot for her...

"It's not a problem, and never will be." He replied. "You're my friend. I'll be there for you whenever I can." After everything he had put his other friends through, even unintentionally, Lelouch felt that he should do everything in his power to keep any friends he made safe and happy. So far, Argo had been practically the only one he had made. Lelouch was not exactly popular, what with his constant hooded appearance, usage of a weapon consistently referred to as a PK weapon (The beta testers had let that little detail slip after hearing about the duo who had been fighting the boss with claw-weapons, expressing great amusement with the fact.), and his less-than-outgoing personality. While he hadn't become extremely well known, rumors of him spread ever so slightly.

Argo shuddered blissfully, a blush gracing her features. "When you said you were hard to love yesterday, I didn't believe you. I still don't." She said.

Lelouch rolled his eyes. "Just wait until you get to know me better, Argo."

"I hope it happens soon. I'd love to get to know you _much _better..." She trailed off suggestively.

He smirked coyly at her. "You seem to have your energy back. Maybe you'd like to walk the rest of the way?" He grinned as she shook her head rapidly.

"Nuh uh, I'm too comfy. You wouldn't make me... would you?" Argo pouted at him, eyes sparkling.

"No, I'm not that mean." Lelouch assured her.

An unfamiliar voice cut in, gruff and threatening. "Well, well, if it isn't a couple'a players wandering around the woods all alone. Don't you know it's dangerous out here?" A man walked out of the treeline, having been using a rather high sneak skill to remain undetected. Around him, four other men walked from the cover of the trees, baring threatening grins.

All of them looked like your average thug, dressed in common leather armor and armed with weapons ranging from sword and shield to two handed warhammer. Each had a rugged look about them, and brandished their weapons threateningly. Above the heads of each was an orange cursor.

The apparent leader held a large two handed sword, it's blade planted in the ground before him. "We'll be taking any valuables you've got on you." His grin turned lecherous. "And your equipment." As he said this, he gave a specific glance to the girl in Lelouch's arms.

Lelouch frowned, before sighing. "Should we just leave, Argo? Short of killing them there isn't anything I can really do to stop them, and if I kill them I'll be stuck with an orange cursor for quite some time."

The girl was rather pissed at them for interrupting their moment. "If we move on, they'll just go steal from someone else. Someone who may be in their league..." She pondered. "What a pain."

The leader, angered by their complete ignorance of him, allowed his anger to get the better of him. He charged at the duo, sword held high and with intent to kill or maim. His blow missed as the man simply moved out of the way, holding the girl firmly to his chest. The thug tried to pull his sword out of the ground quickly in order to strike again, but never go the chance as a foot plowed into his head with enough force to send him flying into a tree. His health bar dropped by a large margin, especially considering that he had only been kicked.

Lelouch's cursor flashed orange, a warning. One only got three warnings for dealing damage to players outside of sanctioned duels. There were no warnings if a player is killed in a single blow outside of duels, the cursor instantly became orange for three days. Orange players had no ability to enter cities or towns at all, else they would spawn ridiculously powerful guards, which would proceed to detain them.

The other men around began to question whether or not it was wise to fight this man, seeing as how he had handily dispatched the highest level player in their group. And then he disappeared suddenly, no trace of him to be found. A firm strike from another foot landed upon a warhammer wielding thug, sending him flying. He had been the largest of the group, and second highest level.

This action broke their morale entirely, and the group scattered into the woods. The two who he had struck picked themselves off the ground and ran off, the leader having left his sword in his rush to escape. Lelouch chuckled, deciding to leave the blunted blade behind.

"I'm dizzy." Argo complained, not having been let down for even a moment of that confrontation.

"No you're not." He countered, knowing full well that the girl was used to moving at such speeds.

"How do you know?" She asked.

"Because you fight like a flea on a sugar-high."

"... Yeah, well you look like a girl."

"Regardless of my feminine charm, you still aren't dizzy."

"Just take me home." The girl ordered with an air of finality.

Lelouch shrugged heavily, surprising her with the sudden motion that left her unheld for a scant moment. He caught her quickly, noting the increased pace of her breathing indicating her shock.

"Don't do that!" She yelped.

"Fine, I won't do it again." Lelouch conceded, holding in his snickers.

"You're mean." Argo concluded with a pout.

Lelouch rolled his eyes. She had no idea.

After several detours and about ten extra minutes of walking, Lelouch and Argo had reached her home without any chance of pursuit. Lelouch had made ertain they wouldn't be followed by backtracking multiple times, in several directions, at high speed.

Yeah, if anyone had managed to follow that ridiculous route then they probably already knew about the cottage anyway. And the cottage itself, like all formal houses in Aincrad, was a safe zone, and could only be entered with the key to the house in the inventory of either yourself or a party member.

"Lulu, can I sleep with you tonight?" Argo asked as she finally removed herself from his grasp, reluctantly so.

"So long as I wake up tomorrow with my dignity intact, sure." He replied, following Argo into the house.

"Define "dignity", Lulu."

"Would "virginity" be a better word to use?"

"Wait... you're a virgin?" Argo questioned, eyes widening.

"Yes, you do remember who I look like, right? Most girls I knew wanted nothing to do with me." It took almost all of his willpower not to burst out laughing, knowing that he had told one of the biggest lies he had ever come up with.

Argo, however, frowned. "Oh, I see... you've really had a hard life, haven't you?" She asked.

Lelouch shrugged. Of course his life had been extremely difficult, riddled with tragedy after tragedy. He had committed or been forced to commit homicide, genocide, patricide, regicide, and eventually suicide. So, yes, his sanity had taken many hits over the few years he had decided that enough was enough and actually done something. Geass may have sped up his intended revolution, but damn did it complicate certain matters more than it needed to. Mao, V.V., the Geass Order, Rolo, Shirley, The Ragnarok Connection, Marianne's assassination, the Black Knight's mutiny, Nina, and the SAZ Massacre... all of it caused by Geass, some more directly than others. All of it leaving mental wounds that would likely never heal...

He had done things he had regretted, and others he had relished. But, still, it seemed like there were more bad times than good. He still occasionally had dreams of awakening back in Ashford, going to class, and simply being normal. Though, there were faces that hadn't been around the first time. His dreams of the council featured Rolo, Kallen, Suzaku, and even Gino and Anya had wormed their way into it. Anya more prominently, due to his actually knowing her, but he had always somewhat liked Gino and his particular brand of happy. He had been like a male Milly, to some degree.

And, much to his amusement after the dream had first ended, the Ashford staff had an addition in the form of Jeremiah Gottwald, a butler/bodyguard similar to Sayoko's position as maid/ninja bodyguard.

All and all, he was happy he had done what he had. The world was a better place after his interference, and no one could deny it. Had he simply sat back and tried to be normal, the world wouldn't exist at all. If only THAT little detail had been public knowledge, the looks on the faces of the general populous would be hysterical.

"Yes," He answered, "you could say my life has been pretty hard."

But, he wouldn't change it if he could. As much as he regretted some of his decisions, things had worked out. Any small change that seemed for the better may ruin everything.

That night, he shared a bed with Argo. And much to his surprise she simply snuggled into his side and went to sleep. He smiled lightly, realizing that she was doing this as much for him as she was for herself. It had been a long time since someone had tried to comfort him.

He slept better than he had in quite some time, pleasant dreams of his imaginary student council playing through his head, with Argo as yet another new addition.

* * *

A bull-like creature snorted menacingly at the hooded figure before it, ivory horns prepared to run him through. With a loud grunt of exertion, the bull took off from the ground like a train, with full intent of goring it's foe.

With a motion too quick for the slow creature to catch, it's foe stood behind it. Three jagged gashes opened up on it's side, trailing down the entire body of the bovine monster. It collapsed to the ground, before fading to dust.

"Congratulations!" A white panel appeared before the figure, who regarded it briefly before humming to himself. With a small smile, the figure turned on his heel and began to make his way back to the city of Urbus, and from there Starting City.

"I've completed all goals set forth for today..." He muttered. And it was true, he had. While in the beta he still had to worry about his job, visiting with the few friends he had, eating, sleeping, and so forth. Now that he was trapped here leveling up via grinding was quite simple. He had leveled twice today, and had finished his current quest. "I wonder, will someone else call up a boss meeting four the second floor boss, or will it be up to me?" Personally, he hoped someone else did. Mysterious hooded people tended to not make good leaders without proving something on a grand scale.

He walked down the craggy mountainous pathway, a care-free smile on his face, hidden though it was, as he had finished everything he wanted to in much less than the amount of time he had allotted to do so. "I recall the boss of floor two was actually rather easy to defeat, no special triggers for new abilities. How accurate that information is now, I can't be sure..." What was the point of having a beta if nothing was the same? Such a nuisance.

If this were a war, Lelouch would have been impressed by the simple, yet efficient, tactics Kayaba had displayed by making them think they knew the game, only to change things around as he did. However, Lelouch had gone through quite a bit of trouble to prevent wars for a while, and was unable to think about anything other than how pissed off Kayaba's particular strategy made him.

Really, while Lelouch simply had to commend the man on his ridiculous amount of planning and forethought, aswell as his genius design of this world and the system to make it all work, he was still understandably angry. Ten thousand people were stuck in this hell, and now around eight thousand remained. Not all of the players were Japanese, either, so it wasn't entirely the problem of a single country.

While SAO had RELEASED in Japan, it was still attainable by people outside of the country for a few days before the actual launch of the servers. And so, while about fifty to sixty percent of the trapped players were Japanese, the rest were scattered around other nationalities. And while Kayaba may or may not have hidden himself well enough to avoid detection by a world-wide search, Lelouch was certain they would be able to do nothing but detain him. He doubted the man had placed a simple "Off" button on the server, and destroying it was a ridiculously stupid idea he hoped no one even gave serious thought to. Who knows what the hell would happen if you were to destroy the server while thousands of players were trapped within it? The gears may simply fry all of the survivors.

He sighed. "This entire situation is fucked up." He muttered. Something caught his attention, and he stopped, listening closely. The sound of fighting caught his ear, and he decided to make his way over to the battle. He'd gained a slight hero complex, he supposed, wanting to help as many people get out of this alive as he could. But he supposed it couldn't be helped.

As he came upon the scene of the battle, he saw a woman who looked to be in her early twenties, using a peculiar weapon. The woman wore a simple cloth robe in a yellow color, the robe ending just below her knee. Over the chest of the robe was what appeared to be combat armor, a dull reddish color. One sleeve had been removed, and she wore a leather bracer that started below the elbow and continued to her wrist, but enough skin was shown to reveal that she was quite pale, the leather was a dark purple. Her right arm had a wide sleeve that fluttered as she moved, yellow with red at the edge. Beneath the sleeve she wore another bracer, of the same color. The woman wore a pair of sandals, held with straps that went up her leg to just below her knee, colored the same as her bracers.

From Lelouch's angle, he couldn't see her face, but he could see her long white hair, two tails tied in the back, and as she moved somewhat he could see another, shorter, tail of hair at her front. Two small buns also sat in her hair.

The oddest thing about the girl, in Lelouch's opinion, was her choice of weapon. A chain-whip, which she wielded with far more experience than most players in the game could say about their own weapons. She certainly had more skill with the thing than he had with these claws, he noted. The whip was a blur as she twirled it around her, a small white flag being the only thing that kept the edge visible to him as she kept it's momentum up.

Her opponent was significantly less interesting, simply duo of bull-like creatures known simply as Tauru's. While they were strong, moved quickly in straight lines, and had large amounts of HP, she had no issue dispatching them as she danced gracefully about them, the dart on the end of her weapons tearing through her foes like a weed whacker.

Soon the Tauru's had perished, and the woman stood with a smile on her face. "Done." She announced happily. "It's a good thing I can't get tired here, or I wouldn't be doing nearly as well." The woman giggled slightly.

Lelouch had caught a glimpse of her eyes, and noted they were a shade of red. So she was albino, rather than pale with dyed hair. He got the feeling he had seen her around before... must have been in Urbus or Starter City, he presumed. Seeing that the girl needed no help, he decided to leave. Wouldn't want to look like a stalker or something. But, still, something about her was just so familiar.

A small dart planted itself in the tree branch he stood on, next to his foot, just as he was about to leave. Well, wasn't that a nice way to greet someone...

"Hello, might I ask why you were watching me?" The voice of the woman asked from behind him, and from the way her voice carried she was around his height too. So she was acrobatic enough to take to the trees like he and Argo. Considering her fighting style, he supposed it made sense.

He looked over his shoulder, giving a small wave. "I heard combat and came to see if someone was in need of any help. Once I saw you were fine, I decided to leave. Which I was about to do, until this..." He removed the dart from the branch, holding it between two fingers. "found it's way up here."

While she hadn't had a hostile expression to begin with, her face lit up in joy. "Oh! That's nice of you." She responded. "A lot of people wouldn't take the time to check on something like this." The woman pointed out, a bit sadly.

Lelouch shrugged. "I always make it a point to at least check out fights out in the field if I hear them. I'd like to get as many people as possible out of this world and back to our own."

Her eyes lit up, and her smile seemed to get wider. "So, you're one of the clearers, right?" She asked.

He nodded. "Yes, I suppose you could say that. I've been leveling and doing quests for now, I'm waiting on someone to bring together a group for the second floor boss. It's yet to be found, but when someone discovers it I'll be along for the fight." Without the whip moving, Lelouch had counted nine segments, excluding the handle.

"You're not out looking yourself?" She asked, curiously.

"I'm a solo-player, for the most part. I only occasionally team up with one or two others I know, so I'd like to get a bit of a level advantage before traversing the dungeon." Lelouch responded.

"Oh. Don't you get lonely?" The woman wondered.

He chuckled. "No, not really. While I tend to go level alone, I do hang out with my friend."

She sighed to herself, folding the segments of her whip together and placing it in a small pouch at her side. "That must be nice. I don't really know anyone in this place." The white-haired woman replied.

Lelouch berated himself on the inside for somehow having picked up a habit of trying to comfort women who were depressed, but outwardly gave a small laugh. "If you'd like, I could introduce the two of you." While it wasn't too much to do, there was still something about this woman that set him on edge. Not that she was dangerous, per-se, he just felt a sort of... familiarity with her. It was somewhat disconcerting. Like when you met someone again after a long time and can't remember their name.

But seeing the brilliant smile appear on her face as she accepted his offer dulled the feeling a bit. She didn't mean him any harm, so she wasn't that dangerous he supposed.

And then, she spoke again. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I almost forgot to actually introduce myself! I'm Lihua, it's nice to meet you..." She left the sentence unfinished, implying that it was his turn to introduce himself.

'No way.' Lelouch thought to himself, eyes widened as a sudden realization hit him. 'How the hell is my luck this bad!' Seriously, what was it with fate deciding to make him it's toy? Had he seriously just run into the Empress of China inside of a video game?

He quickly calmed himself. Of course it wasn't her. Lihua was a common enough name in China, and he was certain there was more than one albino in the country. "My name is Gawain." He replied.

Lihua blinked, and let out a small chuckle. At his questioning glance, she just covered her mouth with one hand and answered him, a slight blush on her cheeks. "I'm sorry, it's just something that came to mind. I just remembered that Zero once piloted a knightmare by that name."

Lelouch allowed himself a small laugh. "Yes, that's what most people think of now when the name "Gawain" comes up." Despite it's rather short period of time on Earth, the Gawain had made a huge impact on the world's perception of Knightmare Frames. Being the first flight enabled knightmare solidified it's place in history. "So, do you have anything to do in Urbus? Because my friend likes to hang around Starter City, so that's where I'm headed."

The woman smiled happily. "Oh, that's great. I was heading there myself, actually."

"Oh? Why?" He asked.

"Because I was going to visit the children today." She replied. "Ever since Diabel's death, Sasha has needed a good bit of help taking care of them. I decided to volunteer myself for the job."

"Ah, I see. I'd been meaning to stop by myself, actually. I've been working up some extra Col to donate to her." As had Argo, Kirito, Egil, and surprisingly (Or maybe not so surprisingly) Kibaou and his party. Thanks to their efforts, Sasha and the children had a decent stockpile built up, and none of them had any intentions of stopping any time soon. Argo saw it as a sort of repentance, though she had stopped moping about Diabel's death. Kirito was donating since he had nothing to really spend on, finding most of his gear via drops as opposed to purchasing it, and not really buying much for himself. And also because he wanted to pay his respects to Diabel, who's death had firmed his resolve. Agil simply wanted to help out, and did so with a generous amount of Col.

Kibaou was, in his own way, an honorable man. Knowing Diable had left behind a spouse, who was the caretaker of what was basically an orphanage, he couldn't just let her struggle through the death of her lover without any aid at all. His party, a group of friends from reality and Aincrad, was all for the idea. All of them agreed to donate what they could spare. While they all shared loot drops, they were still one of the most fervent groups. They always grinded together, all remaining at a similar level, save Kibaou who had gotten a small head-start and was still ahead by a few levels, shared drops fairly based on who could use them most, and pooled their Col together as a group, before splitting it evenly among them.

Lelouch could tell that they would be a great asset to clearing this game, though Kibaou's dislike of Kirito would be an annoyance. Luckily, however, Kirito's choice of becoming the "Beater" had dulled the man's hatred of beta-testers, replacing it with an even more intense hatred of the black haired boy who had made himself public enemy number one.

"Well, then, let's head out." Lelouch said.

"Alright. Oh, Gawain? Do you mind if I ask you a bit about yourself?" Lihua asked with a small blush. "I'm naturally curious, sorry. Don't feel like you need to answer anything." She assured him.

He shrugged. "If I can ask the same of you?"

"Of course, it wouldn't be fair otherwise." The woman replied. He nodded, and Lihua asked her first question. "What do you do for a living, outside?" By outside, of course, she meant outside of the death-game.

"I work at a child-care center." He said.

She blinked. "Really? Oh wow, no wonder you're going to visit the children then." It only made sense, after all. That was interesting.

"And you?" Lelouch asked, with a small smile beneath his hood.

"Oh, well." She started, letting out a little laugh. "Would you believe me if I told you I was the Empress of the Chinese Federation?"

Lelouch tripped, nearly falling over. "I'm sorry, what?" He asked.

The woman laughed, much louder this time, her hand over her mouth. She calmed after a moment, before introducing herself with a formal bow. "My name is Jiang Lihua, and I am the Empress of the Chinese Federation. It's nice to meet you."

Lelouch hated fate sometimes.

* * *

I've made a quick alteration to this chapter after something was pointed out to me by MisterSP, that being how Chinese names are the same as Japanese names as far as positions go. Like, given name is last. So, yeah. Lihua would be her first name. *Shrug*

Another reviewer mentioned that I had said seven thousand remained, when it's actually eight thousand. Small mistake, but a mistake nonetheless.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Sword Art Online or Code Geass. Say, if this is a site dedicated to Fanfiction, why do we need to put disclaimers? Isn't it automatically assumed that we don't own these things, since we're on a fanfiction site? I always wondered about that.

Anyway. I'm still trying to get better on grammar/spelling and such. I'd honestly rather not have a beta, after thinking about it. I dunno, I'm just weird like that. Anyway, characters are introduced. The "main cast" you could say.

Once all the characters are introduced, I can start getting a bit deeper into them. Interactions with Asuna are non-existent at this point, but rest assured she'll be back. Her and Kirito will get their screen time at some point, along with certain other characters...

Also, there's just a really nice feeling looking into your reviews and seeing an author who's stories you've read and enjoyed. (Here's lookin' to you, Thanathos.)

* * *

"Wow, Wain. Just wow." Argo gaped. "You've got the craziest luck." This was the reaction Argo had upon being told just who Lelouch was introducing her to. While she had been somewhat skeptical for a few moments, she soon realized that the woman before her was either Jiang Lihua or a long lost twin. Argo recalled watching a documentary of China's recent years, after the reign of the Demon Emperor, and the Tianzi was featured prominently, alongside Li Xingke. While Jiang had grown into a beautiful and confident young woman, thanks to Xingke and her most loyal followers, Li Xingke had unfortunately died four years ago. His illness had finally caught up to him, tearing a good man away from the world before his time.

Long story short, after listening to the white-haired beauty in front of her, Argo could say without a doubt that she had met the Empress of China. "I mean... wow." She was, understandably, quite shell shocked. After all, unlike Lelouch, she was a simple school-girl with a photographic memory. Famous people were a big deal to her, since she had never been one.

Lelouch wished he could tell her about just how much of a pain in the ass it really was, but then he'd have to explain just how he knew. And, well, that was a conversation for another day. Or never. Yeah, never sounded good.

Lihua frowned slightly. "Uhm, Gawain? I think we broke her?" She wondered, leaning in slightly to rest hand on the girl's forehead. Subconsciously, she knew that it wasn't really going to tell her anything, but she had picked up the rather blunt habit from Kaguya. "You dont have a fever..." She pointed out the obvious.

Argo batted her arms away gently, blushing. "I'm fine, it's just... you're just like you were in that documentary." She admitted. "I'm just shocked to see someone like you had decided to play this game... even if it's not much of a game anymore." The girl muttered the last part a bit bitterly.

The albino woman blushed, covering her mouth her her hand. "Well, it get's tedious being in charge of a country. While I live like royalty, there is a lot of work to do that comes with it, especially now. Keeping the peace is hard." Seeing the stare of the girl before her, and hearing the hooded boy snicker, she shook her head and got on with what she intended to say. "I needed a break, but I couldn't just leave for a few weeks because I had responsibilities. So Kaguya suggested I try this game, she even offered to play it with me." She paused, hearing Lelouch make a choking noise. "Ah! Are you alright, Gawain?" She asked, placing a hand on his shoulder in concern.

"I'm fine, don't worry." He replied, perhaps a bit too quickly.

Jiang blinked, before deciding to continued her story. "Uh, right. I managed to get two of the Nervegears, and had the good fortune of my schedule being clear after an economic meeting. Kaguya had told me she couldn't make it for opening day, so I and Lin, my personal attendant, went into the game by ourselves..." She trailed off sadly. "Lin didn't make it far. We hadn't spawned together, so I'd been looking for her. But just last week I saw her name crossed off of the Monument of Life. She was killed by Kobolds in the floor one dungeon within the first month." Jiang sighed. "I'm just glad Kaguya didn't get sucked into this mess." The woman whispered.

So was Lelouch, though he kept his sentiments to himself. If Kaguya and Jiang were both here, and he had simply not run into Kaguya, then he would have been in quite the predicament if the Tianzi attempted to introduce them. Kaguya, having been one of his most dedicated admirers during his run as Zero, having lived in the same household with him, and having seen him unmasked, knowing he had been Zero... well, he felt he could say she knew him pretty well. Well enough to pick out the subtle gestures and movements he made unintentionally, which was in turn enough to spark her curiosity. And a curious Kaguya was a bad Kaguya.

He actually recalled an extremely awkward situation her curiosity had brought upon him when they had both lived with the Kururugi family. Having been curious about the difference between boys and girls, after a conversation with Suzaku's mother, she had waited until they were alone and dropped his pants when he wasn't paying attention, leaving the ten year old Lelouch standing with his pants and underwear around his ankles for the second it took to realize what just happened, at which point he furiously yanked the clothing back over himself, giving himself an extremely uncomfortable wedgie in the process.

And, of course, Kaguya had to comment. "Oh, so boys have a trunk like an elephant!" She had announced gleefully, before running off. It was after that incident that Lelouch had begun to take great caution whenever Kaguya was involved in something.

"Oh man, I just realized. China is going to be a mad-house right now." Argo stated bluntly.

Jiang flinched, having been worrying over that factor for quite some time. "Y-yes... hopefully Zhou and Hon can keep the peace until this is over..." By "Zhou and Hon" she meant Zhou Xianglin and Hon Gu. (In no way related to another Zohan we may know of...)

Lelouch gave Argo a look, and even though it remained hidden beneath the hood, she could tell he was chastising her for her bluntness. "The two of them are both competent military commanders, with many years of experience behind them. I'm sure they'll be able to handle things until this is fixed." He reassured her.

A grateful, if nervous, smile came to her lips. "I can only hope."

"Well, enough of that. Wain, I got news that the clearers found the second floor boss." Argo announced. "The fastest of the group ran in, got a look at the boss, and then rushed out. It's still the Minotaur." She scoffed. "Doubt anything else is the same. That'd be too easy for Kayaba."

"Or maybe he'll have left it the same to mock us." Lelouch pondered. "It seems like something he'd do, considering he's trying to assert the fact that he owns this world on us."

"Either way." Lihua cut in. "We've got to defeat it." She crossed her arms resolutely.

Lelouch chuckled. "Yes, we do. Argo, are they calling another strategy meeting? Or is there only confirmation of the boss-room location?" He asked.

"Yeah, the meeting is tomorrow at five. They'll be leaving at ten the day after, just like the last one." Argo confirmed.

"Good." He said. "I assume we'll all be attending?" He asked, glancing pointedly at the mousy information broker.

She sighed, before nodding. "Fine, fine, I'll show up."

"Wonderful. It's... " He quickly checked the clock on his menu. "Six. Not much left to do in Starter city now that we've visited with Sasha and the children." Argo had come to greet them just after they had finished their visit.

While Lihua and Lelouch actually visited with the woman, exchanging pleasantries and condolences, Argo decided after her first visit to simply drop off the donations she made and leave quickly. That whole incident was best kept buried, and if Lelouch had his way Kibaou would be buried with it. While he may have meant well, the man took rumors too seriously, and held grudges with people he knew only by ear.

With that in mind, he asked his next question. "Who found the boss room, if you know?"

She cringed a bit, and Lelouch knew just who it was. "Kibaou." She answered, more for the sake of Lihua, who tilted her head questioningly.

"A man with a spiny hair-style, and light brown hair. Hazel eyes. Two handed sword, pretty basic heavy-leather armor set. Visit's the church every week." Lelouch listed off his attributes, shrugging as the woman's eyes lit up. "He's a real ass to some people, friendly to others, and holds grudges against people based on rumors. Still, he and his are among the few that actually grouped together to defeat Illfang. Were it not for his party, we wouldn't have had enough manpower to kill the boss. He has his own sense of honor, twisted though it may be, which he upholds with a fierceness akin to a wild beast. While I can admire some of these traits, I still don't like him." He finished.

"I... see." Lihua muttered. "So... um... I guess this will be goodbye until tomorrow..." She bit her lower lip, nervously.

It was quite clear to Lelouch that she didn't want to be alone, especially not so soon after meeting new friends, but it wasn't like he could do much. While their home had an extra room, the only person in this game who knew that he vastly resembled the Demon Emperor would be Argo, who had no personal qualms with the reign of the monster known as Lelouch, having lost no relatives to his war.

The Tianzi, however, had some traumatizing memories he was sure. Being captured after held at the point of the VARIS, shoved into a small cell with only Kaguya beside her, and the days of waiting for her execution, followed by the parading her and the others down the streets like felons... yeah, she'd probably have some foul memories of him.

Argo didn't seem to stop to think of this. "You'know, you could always stay with Wain and me." She offered. "Our place has three bedrooms... and only one is being used." A sly grin slipped onto her partially visible face, as she threw and arm around the statue-still figure of Lelouch.

'Shit, shit, shit. If I tell Argo we can't do that, Lihua will be suspicious of what I'm hiding, which simply cannot end well. I'll need to be extremely careful to always wear my hood... which will also draw her suspicion...' He paused in his thoughts, a tired groan echoing through his mind. 'And she implied we were sleeping together in a notably less innocent way than we are.'

"A-ah, I'm not s-sure if I could intrude on you l-like that..." The Empress stuttered, ruby eyes wide. She must have been away from Kaguya for too long, she hadn't been getting her daily dose of innuendo... Argo was going to build back up the tolerance she had for it.

Argo was suddenly before her, hands clasped and eyes wide and hopeful. "Pleeaaaaaaase?" She begged, eyes sparkling.

The woman blushed, and began trying to stutter a coherent response. "Aaahh, umm, a-alright, I suppose I c-could..." She replied, trying not to gush over how adorable the younger girl looked. Why was she so good at that?

Lelouch would have snarled in frustration, had he less control of his emotions. 'Damn it. There's nothing I can do about this now without drawing untoward attention on myself.' He realized he would simply have to deal with it. He was going to get Argo for this one... somehow.

"Well, let's head to the cottage then. It's a ten minute walk and it's getting late." Lelouch suggested.

"Alright, but first I got a gift for you Wain." Argo announced, opening a trade window with speeds that displayed a great deal of dexterity and knowledge of the systems.

Lelouch looked the item over, making a small snort of amusement. "Really, Argo?" He asked, looking over the item, now a trio of items, on the panel. Was she being serious?

"Yeah, really. You always complain about your hair being too boring, so I got'cha some dyes from the market for cheap." Argo responded.

Dyemaking was cheap, required little output of effort, and was safe considering most materials were found off of grinding mobs on floor one, none of which presented any threat to all but the weakest of characters. And as such, it ran rampant, custom colored clothing was easy to spot, people had odd hair colors, and so on.

However, the colors that were available through this skill were somewhat random, seeing as certain ingredients could produce several different colors, and mixing them all together could create a different color each time. As such, many colors were quite rare. Those that weren't rare tended to be the brighter, more exotic colors, along with the duller tones such as brown, dark greens, and so on.

Lelouch had been avoiding the use of dyes, because he didn't want some gaudy, bright hair color, nor did he want such a small change it would be meaningless. He figured hiding his hair beneath his hood was good enough, since there would be no dealing with the issue of finding a color he didn't despise. Argo, however, was basically forcing him to pick one, because she had invited a third person to the house they shared.

... She planned this, he knew it. She had to have planned this, there was no way it simply worked out so well for her. In the end, holding in a sigh of defeat, Lelouch chose the color he could deal with best. Amusingly enough, this would be a silvery white color.

He accepted the trade, having taken the dye he wanted, leaving Argo with a small, sincere smile. 'She's trying to get me to open up to other people. It'd be sweet if I weren't trying my hardest to keep a secret.' He noted.

Seeing her eagerness to get him to use the dye, Lelouch rolled his eyes and activated the item. A small selection panel appeared.

Hair.

Outfit.

He pressed the Hair tab, and in a splash of blue pixels his hair had become a shocking, cloudy white. He sighed. That was going to be hard to get used to.

Argo, and Lihua to a lesser degree, pouted. "I can't see. Your hood is up." The information broker complained.

"I'd like to see, too..." Lihua muttered, a small, embarrassed smile on her lips.

Lelouch shrugged. "Fine. I'll show you when we reach the cottage." He announced. "Speaking of, let's go. Monsters get more aggressive at night and I'd rather not be swarmed by Wasps." Which were another monster introduced on this floor, hidden in the dense mountainous forest. Not terribly dangerous, but fast and annoying. At night their numbers seemed to double, and they multi-aggroed. Not fun at all.

As they began their journey to the cottage, Lelouch couldn't help but recall the last time he had seen Jiang Lihua in person, before this entire mess had occured. Eight years before.

* * *

_Soft footsteps echoed down the halls of the prison, as a boy garbed in white and gold arrived before a glass door, startling the occupants of the cell._

_The older of the two within fixed him with a frosty glare, as the younger cowered in her arms. "What do you want, Lelouch?" She asked, bitterly._

_He stared at her, his face an emotionless mask. "I want you tell me everything you want to. Curse me, condemn me to the deepest pits of hell, I want to hear everything you want to say to me." He replied, still an unreadable book._

_Kaguya frowned, looking him over. Beneath his eyes were dark bags, indicating a lack of sleep, and he looked practically malnourished at this distance. Most definitely not how someone of royal stature would look... He looked defeated, even though he had won. While his face was unreadable, his body language painted him as being bitter._

_"You've done all this. Why?" She surprised him by asking a question, rather than threatening his life. She seemed so calm, too..._

_"I asked you to tell me what you wanted to say. Never did I say I would answer your questions." He replied, stoic._

_A sad smile made it's way to her face. "It's like that time back at the shrine, isn't it?" She asked._

_As his mind processed what she meant, his eyes widened marginally before he could regain control. So she knew after all... he hated when he was right._

_Kaguya pressed her advantage, clutching the Tianzi closer to her, the young girl simply hiding in her embrace. "I knew it. Just like back when you made Tohdoh angry at you to get Suzaku out of trouble. He had you doing push-ups for three weeks." A small, fond smile made it's way to her lips, before being replaced by a bitter look. "But this time it's not going to just be push-ups, is it, Lelouch? That's why you wanted to talk, isn't it?"_

_"You never cease to over-estimate you knowledge." Lelouch's stoic act broke, suddenly haughty. "What makes you think this is anything like my childish decisions, made nearly a decade before? I'm the ruler of the world, what do I care if I'm hated? They can hate me all they like, so long as they follow my orders I've no concerns. And I assure you..." He grinned widely. "They will follow my commands."_

_The head of the Sumeragi House was having none of that, which she made clear with her next words. "Cut the bullshit, Lelouch!" She shouted. "I know what you're going to do." A few tears leaked from her eyes. "Is it really worth it? Do you really think that what your doing is worth everything you've done? All the people you've killed, the lives you've ruined, the hearts you've left broken? Is this scheme of yours worth that? Was it all a part of your plan from the start?" Kaguya nearly broke down into sobs. "Were you using us this whole time, just to get here and kill yourself!?" She yelled._

_Lelouch smiled sardonically. "No. I never planned this. I wanted to die that day, when the Black Knights betrayed me. Schneizel had won them over and I didn't have any reason to carry on." His smile, self mocking though it may have been, dropped in an instant. "I was done. Not only had I thought Nunnally to be dead, not only had I disowned Rolo, I was nearly gunned down by the army I had raised, because they had allowed an enemy commander to sway them under his banner. Watching them preparing to fire on me, the one who had created the Black Knights... I gave in. I forced Kallen away with hateful words, and prepared for death... and then Rolo saved me. I had to watch yet another person I had cared for die, because of my mistakes. It's funny how I only realized how much I cared for Rolo after he died. First Euphy, then Shirley, and finally Rolo. Two of them died in my arms, and one I had to leave in a road covered in blood that wasn't hers."  
_

_Kaguya, having heard from the other members of the Black Knights just how the SAZ Massacre was supposed to have went down, grit her teeth. "The massacre. Did you or did you not cause it with you Geass?" She asked._

_"I caused it, unintentionally." He laughed a bitter, self loathing laugh. "My greatest weapon turned on me at the worst time possible. If only it had happened just a few minutes before... If only I had kept control for a scant few more minutes, this world would be so very different..." He shook his head. "Either way, it doesn't matter. All that matters is the now." And then he smiled sadly, his tone warm and sincere. "Thank you, Kaguya. I'm sorry that the two of you have to go through this. You'll be free soon, and I'll be gone..."_

_The glass of their cell fell suddenly, and though Kaguya figured out what was going to happen, she was a moment too late to break the trance. The Empress had been caught aswell, having glanced towards the noise._

_"You will forget everything I have told you today." Lelouch commanded._

_"Understood." They replied in unison._

_Lelouch was gone before the trance wore off, meeting half way down the hall with C.C., who had been in the security room operating the cell door. The witch spoke softly. "I'm glad you found a way to keep yourself sane, Lelouch."_

_He laughed bitterly. "Sane is the last word I would use to describe myself. I'm simply keeping my conscience from killing me before Suzaku does." Lelouch replied. "Perhaps one day Jeremiah will return Kaguya's memories to her, and she'll recall this conversation. Perhaps she'll forgive me after my death. Who knows? It won't matter, so long as the Zero Requiem is complete. I've taken and lost too much to give up now."_

_And so, with some of his bottled emotions released, Lelouch trudged down his path, littered with bodies and soaked with blood. Soon, it would all be over... he, and the world, would be free._

* * *

Of course, he had not died. That was certainly a monkey wrench in the works. His short recollection had ended just as they reached the doors of the cottage, Argo ushering her new companion inside. Lelouch followed at a steady pace.

"C'mon, Wain, show us your hair now." Argo demanded, impatiently. She was giggling like a school-girl, eager to see just what he looked like with white hair.

Lihua, not knowing just what color he had chosen, was even more eager to see. She hadn't even seen his face yet, so it was quite exciting for her. She was feeling like a kid all over again.

Lelouch picked up on these things, chuckling inwardly as he realized that sometimes you just had to make your own fun. And so, with a flourish of hands, the immortal scrolled through the menu and unequipped his hood, revealing the clothing he wore beneath.

His upper half was garbed with a semi-loose violet shirt, with wide sleeves that came to his wrist, where they were tied with dark purple bandages. A black, leather bandoleer crossed from his right shoulder to just above his hip, lined with pouch after pouch.

His lower body was covered by a pair of black hakama pants, and he wore a pair of black tabi socks. For footwear he wore what seemed to be a pair of black, straw zori sandals.

And, of course, his face remained the same, save the silvery white hair that closely resembled that of the Empress. "Happy?" He asked.

"Yes!" Argo squealed with joy. "I've finally gotten you to take your hood off in front of other people!" She exclaimed, giddily.

The Empress was slowly looking him over, having had to force down a slight sense of deja vu`. She knew she'd never met this boy before, but he seemed so familiar. When she noticed his eyes, she realized what it was. 'Ah. The eye color. It's been a while since I've seen eyes that shade of purple.' Yes, his eyes were a stunning shade of violet that looked as though they could see into the soul. And, of course, it dredged up memories of Lelouch vi Britannia and his own eyes.

Lihua had been shocked when Kaguya had told her just who Lelouch was, how he had been Zero, how he had lived with her and her cousin in the Kururugi Shrine, how Kaguya had gained a crush on the boy, and how they hadn't met again until she had gone out of her way to meet the masked man Zero.

How Zero had a power called Geass that allowed him to manipulate the minds of anyone who made eye contact and how he had used it, liberally. Even going so far as to cause the SAZ Massacre, having manipulated Euphemia into the entire ordeal.

Of course, she was even more surprised when Kaguya had contacted her suddenly, years later, in tears. She had told Lihua about the incident in the prison, which only Kaguya remembered. Kaguya and Lihua had become extremely close over the years, with Kaguya having been the Tianzi's first friend her age. They kept in touch constantly and were very dear to one another. That was why Kaguya was so quick to share the truth of Lelouch vi Britannia's plans with her, after forcing her to swear that not another soul would learn of it.

In thought, the actions of Lelouch vi Britannia were noble. To draw the hatred of the entire world upon himself, before dying and leaving behind peace under fear of another tyrant rising up. While she didn't like it, Lihua couldn't deny the effectiveness of his plan. And if the Black Knights hadn't mutinied after Schneizel came to them, perhaps things would have been much different and Lelouch vi Britannia would be regarded as a hero. History could change so easily based on decisions made by certain people.

In short, after knowing what she did, memories of the Demon Emperor weren't very jarring to her. "You have such pretty eyes." She noted.

Lelouch shrugged. "Thank you." He replied. Well, that went over well. "Most people don't care for my eye color much."

Argo glomped him, nearly sending them both to the ground. However, Lelouch managed to remain upright this time. "Awww... he didn't fall over." The girl was not pleased with this.

"So I was right!" He exclaimed, outraged. "You ARE doing this just to knock me over."

The girl cackled, still firmly attached to his side. "Of course! I know you like it when I'm on top." She announced.

"A-aah!" Lihua gasped, a pink tinge crossing her cheeks. She shook her head, trying to get the image of the two of them doing _that _out of her head. Kaguya was not a good influence at all.

"Damnit Argo, you're such a pervert." He muttered, patting her on the head, much to her satisfaction.

"And don't you forget it." She practically purred.

Lihua couldn't help but giggle, the two of them just looked so cute together. "Uhm, are the bedrooms upstairs or down? And which are you two using?" She asked.

"Oh that's right, I didn't tell you about the best part of this house." Argo exclaimed. "C'mon, follow me!" Not giving any room for an answer, Argo quickly grabbed the Empress by her arm and spirited the surprised woman off.

Lelouch shook his head with a small, tired smile. "This has been a long day." He announced, falling into a chair. "With Kibaou leading the next raid-group, I'm uncertain as to whether or not we'll succeed. Hopefully he can lead the group effectively. If not, we're going to take a lot of casualties." He frowned. "Hopefully someone will step up and lead them. If not, it will fall to me... and I would rather not bring that kind of attention onto myself. Perhaps if I used Argo or the Tianzi as a proxy leader..." And so he was left to scheme, as Argo showed Lihua the hotspring.

"A-ah!" He heard someone yell. "A-Argo, what are you d-doing!?"

... There went that plan. He decided, rather than allow his mind to wander, he would simply try to tune out the surrounding noises.

"Awww, but you look so pretty when you blush!" Argo's voice called.

And with that, Lelouch stood up and walked outside.

* * *

"It's frightening to see just how real this world seems..." Lelouch muttered, looking out into the treeline. "Had Kayaba never trapped us here, he would be praised world-wide for his masterpiece." He shook his head ruefully. "Now he'll just go down in history as creating the first crisis related to VRMMO's, killing thousands for no good reason." An exhausted sigh escaped his lips. "Even moreso, the Empress simply cannot die here. The fallout it would cause could threaten the peace of the world as a whole... I can't let that happen..." He grit his teeth, fists clenching by his sides. "Too much was sacrificed for someone to destroy it all on a whim."

His head snapped towards a sound in the trees, and he quickly readied a shuriken. "Now, now, no need to go all Sayoko on me." His target replied, walking out of the brush. "Honestly, if getting into this world wasn't such a pain, I'd be less opposed to being killed. Wouldn't be the first time, after all."

"C.C.!" Lelouch shouted in shock. Why was she here? How had she even gone about finding him? How long had she been here? So many questions ran through his head all at once.

"I like your hair, Lelouch." She replied, nonchalantly. "It works on you. Charles always looked silly, though that was more due to the ridiculous style."

After assessing the situation, Lelouch quickly calmed himself and supplemented a cover story. "Alright. You're here. That's not a bad thing. You and I are former classmates, with yourself having just graduated. Currently Argo, one of the two I'm currently staying with, believes I'm a Britannian boy who spent a good portion of his schooling being bullied for having the name "Lelouch", which is why I go by my middle name "Alan". While in this world, I go by the name Gawain."

She gave him a dull look. "Oh, hello C.C., you look ravishing today. Why thank you _Gawain._" She replied snidely. "Honestly, we've not seen each-other for months and this is how you greet me? I'm disappointed."

Lelouch rolled his eyes, well used to C.C.'s antics by now. "You know I'm glad to see you." He said.

She surprised him slightly when she walked closer, suddenly grabbing his collar and pulling him into a quick kiss. "I'm glad to see you too." She responded, after disconnecting their lips.

She had a habit of giving him these quick kisses every once in a while, with no real pattern. After so many years of it he had simply gotten used to it. She'd never bothered to go any deeper in a relationship, so Lelouch hadn't either. And why would he? This worked just fine for him. Besides, it wasn't like they didn't have time to pursue a relationship later. He was willing to bet it would happen at some point. After all, forever is a long time to be alive.

He shook his head. "Right. So, when did you decide to buy SAO? You always seemed disinterested when I brought it up around you." Not that he'd done it often, mind you. But honestly, it was worth bringing up every once in a while.

C.C. shrugged. "I'd planned to surprise you. It's not like I've got anything better to do. Immortality is boring." And then she threw her arms up in exasperation. "It's such a pain that this kind of situation arises when I'd wanted to do something relaxing. You can't seem to keep out of trouble."

Lelouch frowned. "Speaking of trouble..." He pointed to the cottage behind him. "The Empress of China is in there right now."

"... You're kidding me." C.C. replied. "I knew she had been caught up in this, but you've actually managed to run into her? Seriously?"

"Do I look like I'm joking, C.C.?" He replied. "Wait, that reminds me. Is anyone else of note trapped in this game?"

C.C. put her hand to her chin, as though sorting out information. "Well, for starters Kaguya dived into the game a week after the fact."

It was his turn to be shocked. "You're serious? Damn it all to hell. I knew she was impulsive, but this is just ridiculous. No one else?"

"No one important enough to make big news, and I checked on your friends from Ashford specifically. None of them are here."

"Good, having the empress and Kaguya both here is bad enough, I don't need anyone else who poses a threat of recognizing me. So far Lihua shows no signs of suspicion. Kaguya would call me out within a week, maybe sooner. Uhhhhg... we're running out of time to chat, either way. The Empress could recognize you, as close as she and Kaguya are I'm certain a green haired woman named C.C. has come up. Especially considering her former obsession with putting together a harem..." He chuckled a bit. It was actually pretty funny looking back on it.

"Right. Either way, the name I've chosen for my Avatar is Cecilia." At his questioning look, she shrugged. "The box wouldn't let me use symbols, and my name had to consist of more than two letters. So C.C. wasn't possible."

"Alright. We'll need to "meet" one another in town at some point, tomorrow would be good. Starter City is probably the best place. I'll work from there." He grimaced. "Sorry, but it would look too suspicious if I suddenly met up with an old friend in the woods."

She shrugged. "It's fine. I'll look forward to our meeting tomorrow." And with that, she was on her way back to town.

Lelouch sighed. "This is getting too complicated." He didn't like complications unless he intended for them to occur.

* * *

The next day, a meeting was held. After the success of the first boss clear, with only one casualty, they had drawn nearly twice as many players for the second floor boss.

The meeting was being held in the town square, where the large group wouldn't be cramped. "Alright! Let's get this meeting started." A gruff voice shouted.

The attention of the murmuring crowd was drawn to Kibaou, who stood before his party. All members of his group were well outfitted with the best weapons they could get ahold of on this floor, and made for a very inspiring sight. "My name is Kibaou, for you newcomers." He gestured out to the crowd. "I'm going to be leading this raid, and my party and I are among those who defeated Illfang. We've got the right to be in charge." He chuckled a bit.

"Our goal, is the defeat of Minos, the Golden Bull. The information we have on the boss states that it is mostly a brute, and has very few special characteristics. The most dangerous part of the fight will be whenever the boss's horns glow gold. When that happens, he'll smash the area around him, knocking anyone close to him away. He'll then pick someone and charge them. To combat this, we will have a group dedicated entirely to stopping him mid charge. To do this will require a lot of strength, so anyone with that quality would be an asset. Volunteers?"

A member of Kibaou's party stepped forward, wielding a sword and shield. "My name is Katsu, I'm the one who will be leading the group intended to halt the boss's charge." He was a tall man, and while he didn't look particularly muscular, it didn't mean anything in this fantasy world. He could be the strongest person in Aincrad for all they knew. His hair was dark, short, and looked rather unkempt. Aside from that, nothing set him apart.

The towering form of Agil made itself known. "I volunteer." He stated simply, looking around the gathered players with a smile. He was obviously pleased with the amount of people who had turned up this time.

Four more people volunteered for the position, before Kibaou announced that they should have enough. "Good! Now, divide into groups and get ready for the fight tomorrow. Tonight is yours to do whatever you want." His grin turned sour. "The last boss fight, we lost a good man. I want everyone here to get out alive. Be careful tomorrow, don't let yourselves get caught off guard. Our info was wrong last time, and we got this info from the same person. It might be wrong, but it's what we've got."

In the crowd, Argo the Rat flinched.

A hand settled itself on her shoulder, and she smiled weakly at it's owner. "I know, I know... but it still hurts. Way to salt the wound..."

Lelouch, hooded once more, simply sighed. "Kibaou is the type to keep a grudge. With Kirito playing the part of the Beater, he'll keep from singling you out personally at the very least. And if he doesn't, I'll simply remind him where his priorities lie." He had no intention of elaborating how he would do so.

"I'm confused... Argo is the one that the information on the bosses came from?" Lihua asked.

Argo chuckled. "Yep. I've got a reputation among the beta testers for being the one who knows anything you want to learn."

"And the nickname "Argo the Rat" due to those oh so adorable whisker marks on her face, and her tendencies to swindle you out of your Col for info." A male voice cut in.

The boy who had cut in was about Lelouch's height, with shoulder length blue hair and golden eyes. He was garbed in simple clothes, with a leather chest piece for protection. He wore a long-coat, which fell to his knees and partially hid his weapon of choice, a rapier. He had a mischievous looking face, as though he had some great prank in the works that no one else knew about. His long coat was a chalky white, and the clothing beneath was colored different shades of blue, the pants darker than the shirt. His feet were covered by a pair of leather boots.

"Pollux." Argo replied dryly. "Good to see you're alive. Your brother nearby?" She asked.

"Yes, I'm here." A softer voice replied. "Good to see you, Argo." Castor looked quite similar to his brother, but with a gentler face and blue eyes. He was garbed in a full set of chainmail armor, a dark greyish color. A short blue cape fell from his left shoulder, covering the arm down to the elbow. Slung over his back, attached by a leather harness, was a large warhammer. It looked almost out of place on the gentle looking boy.

"You guys weren't there for the first boss, I was hoping you hand't been caught in this mess."

Castor frowned. "It took us a bit longer to get over the entire ordeal than some others. By the time we had resolved to clear this game, we were terribly underleveled. Neither of us looked forward to risking our safety by leaping into dangerous situations without being adequately prepared, so we grinded for a long while to reach a decent level and get our hands on some good equipment." He sighed tersely. "To think that we had looked forward to this game."

Pollux shrugged. "Honestly, Cas, this world isn't too bad. If it wasn't for the looming threat of death I'd be perfectly content with being stuck here until we clear all hundred floors. But the whole dying thing kinda kills the mood."

Lelouch furrowed his brow. Castor? Pollux? Blue hair, fair skin, gold and blue eyes? Why was this so familiar?

... No.

He looked closer at the two, noting that he had picked up a faint accent in their Japanese, which was the primary language spoken in SAO. While copies had been available to certain parties outside of Japan, I.E. those with enough money to ship it without problems, it was still sold primarily in Japan and marketed as a Japanese game.

Yes, the duo had a distinctly Britannian accent, slight though it was. So a pair of twins with blue hair, mismatched eyes, and fair skin, who hailed from Britannia.

If these two were who he thought they were, he could honestly say he had the most ridiculous luck. Since having the misfortune of entering Sword Art Online, he had encountered the Empress of the Chinese Federation, ran into C.C., been informed that Kaguya had also entered the death-game, and possibly found two of his half-brothers.

Either way, it didn't matter. They were born a year and a half before his exile, so they wouldn't know of his mannerisms. Aside from his brief reign, during which the duo had been under the influence of Geass, they had no contact with him. Even if they were his half-brothers, the two of them had little to no chance of recognizing him.

"Argo?" Lihua asked. "Who are your friends?"

The girl shrugged. "Just another pair of beta testers I met before this whole thing went to hell. Castor and Pollux." She gestured to them respectively.

"Ah. Hello, my name is Lihua." While the woman wasn't extremely secretive about her position as the leader of a country, neither did she spread that information around needlessly. Why she had been so open about it to Gawain was a mystery.

"My name is Gawain." Lelouch greeted. "It's nice to meet you."

"Good to meet you too." Castor replied with a small smile.

"Nice makin' your acquaintance." Came Pollux's response.

Lelouch nodded. "Argo, I'm going to go for a walk." And with that said, he hopped onto a nearby overhang, leaped once more onto the top of the building, and began jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

Three of the remaining quartet blinked. "Some walk." Pollux muttered with a snicker.

"Wain likes doing stuff like that." Argo muttered offhandedly. "Anyway, do you two have anyone to party with aside from eachother?" She asked the twins.

"No, we're just a duo at the moment." Castor replied. "Are you offering us a spot in your group?" He asked.

"Yeah. We could use someone tanky, since none of us are. Wain and I use claws, and Lihua has a... chain whip."

"Jiujiebian." The Chinese woman offered helpfully.

"Yeah. That." Argo had problems pronouncing that.

"... Right. I can see why you'd need someone who can take a hit. And if there is anyone I know who can take a hit, it would be my brother. After all, he's been my punching bag for years." Pollux announced, earning him a smack to the back of his head from afforementioned punching bag. "OW. Those gauntlets are metal you ass."

Castor rolled his eyes. "You and I both know you can't feel it. Melodramatic."

"Ass." Pollux, obviously, was not one to mince words.

"How utterly pedestrian of you." Castor quoted something their late brother had said many times. Clovis always had amused the duo with his flowery speech and flair for dramatics.

"... Ass." Pollux, however, was still not one to mince words.

Lihua watched these happenings with a deadpan look on her face. "Are they always this..." She paused, searching for a word to described their childish behavior without offending them.

"... Immature? Childish? Stupid? Yes to all three. Castor's not that bad though." Argo, quite obviously, liked to poke fun at the golden eyed boy.

"... Asses, the lot of you." Pollux muttered angrily.

* * *

'Ah. Just who I was looking for.' Lelouch smiled to himself. "Hello, Kirito." He greeted, hopping down from the rooftop of a single story building. "How have you been?"

The boy, garbed in his now iconic coat, waved slightly. "I'm fine. You?"

"Well enough." Lelouch replied. "You were at the meeting today, correct?"

"Yeah. Made sure Kibaou didn't see me, though. He'd throw a fit."

"Indeed. I'm hoping the man has enough tactical knowhow to keep casualties low. He seemed quite determined not to let someone die under his watch." While Lelouch didn't like the man for personal reasons, he realized Kibaou served his purposes. After all, someone as brash as him made for a decent leader of the people. The masses liked to believe they were similar to their leaders. Diabel had gone about making himself seem down to earth, on their level, and so forth. He'd done it with that specific purpose in mind.

Kibaou was just another man with a sword placed in his hand, hoping to get himself and his friends out of this hell. Everyone could relate to that. So, yes, Kibaou served a purpose. He made an easy figure to rally behind. Hopefully he wouldn't make anyone regret their decision to follow his lead.

"That's what you're here about, right?" Kirito asked knowingly. "In case the boss does something odd that I might recognize, like the katana techniques Illfang pulled?"

Lelouch smiled lightly. "Yes, somewhat. You and I both know what the boss is supposed to be capable of, and what bosses above him are capable of. Should something go awry..."

"You want to make sure I'd help anyone who could be taken by surprise." The dark haired loner finished.

"Exactly. While Kibaou may mean well, I don't trust his ability to give level headed commands under pressure. And so if something comes up, someone better suited should take over. After your little Beater stunt, the clearers at least recognize that you know things they don't. If you warn them, they will listen."

Kirito shook his head ruefully. "At least it served a purpose. I'll be sure to warn everyone if I recognize something odd with the boss."

"Excellent. It's been good talking with you, but I'm certain you've other things you want to do. If what Argo says about you is true, you probably intend to grind the rest of the day away. Right?" Lelouch asked.

The Beater chuckled. "She knows way too much." He announced.

"That she does. Goodbye Kirito." And with that, Lelouch was off again.

'Next stop, Starter City.'

* * *

The city was bustling as usual. A great deal of players had decided to simply give up once they realized the severity of their situation. Thus, civilians had to find something to keep themselves occupied. Many of them took up the various professions of Sword Art Online, from smithing to tailoring to woodworking and so on.

Believe it or not, this was a good thing. If everyone rushed out, leveled up, and attempted to clear the bosses then casualties would absolutely skyrocket. There would simply be too many people to manage, and someone would die each and every time a boss was encountered. And moreso, if no one leveled their professions and lived like a simple civilian, then the clearers would have to rely on NPC smiths and armorers... which was not good. They simply didn't compare to a player at all.

Lelouch suspected Kayaba had done this on purpose. Maybe he assumed there would be those who weren't willing to risk themselves, and decided to give them some purpose. Maybe he wanted to force players into breathing life into the world of Aincrad by creating it's economy from scratch. Maybe it was simply a whim.

Either way, it was because of this that people actually took up their crafting skills, which is the reason for such hustle and bustle in Starter City. It was simply the largest city they had access to at this time.

Ah. There was his target now. Dressed in her usual smithing uniform and sticking out like a sore thumb due to her pink hair. "Hello again, miss Lisbeth." Lelouch greeted the idle smith.

"Oh! It's you." She replied immediately. "I didn't catch your name before." Best to get that out of the way first, lest something happen to distract her from it.

Lelouch blinked. "Ah, I'm terribly sorry. I don't know how I could have forgotten something like that. My name is Gawain." How had that not come up during their last chat? Odd.

"Gawain." She tested the word. "Like the knight from the Arthurian myths? Or the Knightmare frame?" Lisbeth pondered.

"A bit of both." Was the response from the immortal.

"I see. So, what do you need? Or did you just stop by to chat?" Lisbeth asked.

"The latter. I'm just roaming the city for the moment." He sighed. "Tomorrow, we'll be confronting the second floor boss. I'm just relaxing until then."

"Oh. I suppose that's good. Is your equipment in good condition?"

"Well over half durability. It'll last another week or two." Sixty percent durability and up was considered a safe zone. If any piece of equipment was below sixty percent then there was a slim chance of it being destroyed upon being damaged, which was not good at all. Many an embarrassing situation had cropped up on the beta forums about that.

"Good." She shook her head sadly. "I wish I had the courage to help out there, but... I'm scared, you know? One slip up out in the field when I'm gathering materials and I could die. How much worse would it be in a dungeon made specifically to kill you?"

Lelouch smiled lightly beneath his hood. "It's fine. A lot of us are scared. One slip up and we'll never see our loved ones again. It's a lot of pressure." His expression hardened. "But we are going to get out of here. No matter how long it takes, those of us trapped in this world will not just lay down and die." They didn't have much choice but to complete the dungeon. It was only a matter of time before the medical facilities the comatose players must currently be in will have to pull the plug.

Either the floors are cleared and those remaining escape, or they die after the resources sustaining them can no longer be given.

Lisbeth smiled back. "I'm glad people like you are out there." She giggled airily. "You make it seem like there's no way we'll be trapped here forever. It's very comforting."

Lelouch chuckled. "Hopefully others take up a similar attitude, then. If there's anything we need, it'd be positivity." He opened his menu, noting that it was 3:30. The rush would occur soon. "It's about that time, Lisbeth. I'll leave you for now so you can tend to your customers."

She blinked. "Oh, you're right. I'd nearly forgotten I actually had work to do! Haha, see you around Gawain. Good luck tomorrow."

"Goodbye for now, I'll visit to tell you when we've defeated the boss. If I recall correctly, floor three is where players can begin to rent property for stores. I think you'll like that, having an actual store rather than using the smith's forge here."

And then he was off again, taking to the rooftops via a series of acrobatic leaps.

Why did Kayaba HAVE to turn SAO into a death game? This was such fun and he couldn't even properly enjoy it because lives were on the line.

Putting that aside, he continued to bound from rooftop to rooftop, searching for his target. He dropped down into an alleyway, before walking out and looking around the various stalls set up in the vicinity.

Ah, there she was. Dressed in a set of light mail, and carrying a shield on her back. At her hip rested a short sword. "Cecilia?" He asked, feigning surprise. Best to put on a small show.

"Hm?" She replied, turning to look him over. "Do I know you?" She asked, squinting at him.

"It's me, Alan." He announced, removing his hood.

Her eyes widened, and she yelled in joy. "ALAN!" She exclaimed, launching herself at him and wrapping him tightly in a hug. "I can't believe you found me! I'm so happy you're alright!"

And after a few moments, she released him. "Good enough?" She whispered deviously.

"Wonderful." He replied in a whisper of his own. And now should Argo snoop around she would hear of this scene, which will quell her suspicions. Information brokers were everywhere, and they had eyes and ears in more places than you could count. While it made gaining information quite simple, it was also easy to take advantage of the system if you had the brains to do so.

Needless to say, Lelouch had the brains to do so.

"I'd been looking for you for months, Alan. How have you been?" She asked.

He laughed dryly. "Fighting giant kobolds, golems, and tomorrow a giant bull. I suppose I could be worse off." He frowned. "It's crowded here."

C.C. mimicked his expression. "Right. We should go somewhere more private and you can catch me up on everything."

Lelouch nodded, turning to leave. "I know a place." He offered, gesturing for her to follow. "Follow me."

Shrugging, the green haired woman did so.

In the crowd, a man in a set of leather armor grinned. He subtly signaled to two others, a man in plate mail and another wearing a cloth outfit. The trio followed after the departing pair, having heard the conversation clearly via their Listen skill.

"What's the plan, Boss?" The largest, the plate wearer, asked the leather clad man.

"Wait till they're outside of city limits and jump'em. Once they're down we'll lay low in the cove and let Rosie know we'll be down for a few days."

"Got it." The other two replied in unison.

The three kept decent distance between their targets and themselves, succeeding in drawing no attention to themselves. Soon, their targets left the city... and the trio lost sight of them.

"Boss, where'd they go?" The man in the hood asked, clutching his sword.

"I dunno. Damnit. They looked like promising marks too." The leather clad man growled. "Fuck it. We'll just hit another group." He decided.

It was then he felt a figure drop behind him. "No, you will not." Lelouch announced. His eyes were cold as he looked at the trio of what he assumed to be bandits. "I'll assume that by taking us down you intended to kill us, which is why you were going to hide out afterwards." He frowned angrily. "I'm willing to bear an orange cursor for a few days if it means you don't hurt anyone else." It'd certainly be difficult to explain tomorrow, but the dungeon was not a safe zone. A quick explanation and he would probably be fine. Probably.

"HAH! We've go the numbers here boy. Your little girlfriend isn't even here now." The leader of the group pointed out.

Lelouch simply shrugged. "You think I care? We left the city specifically to draw you out of hiding." He chuckled at the surprise evident on the face of the leader. "Yes, I knew you had been watching us the entire time. I would never have suspected a meeting with an old friend would lure out _scum_ like you..." As he finished the word "scum", he dropped a small orb which promptly burst into smoke. His figure faded instantly in the dark veil.

"BOSS!" One man yelped in fear. "I can't see anything! OH GO-" His voice was cut off by the sound of broken glass, a shine in the darkness coming from where he had been.

A powdery substance. Pixels... The sword wielder shrieked in horror as he realized that his companion had been slain before anyone could react. He swung about wildly with his blade, hoping for it to find purchase. The sound or ripping cloth was like a godsend to him, as he began ferociously slicing in the direction of the sound. Soon his already murky vision was covered completely by a piece of cloth. 'The hood!' The swordsmen wailed in his head. He quickly tore the cloth from his face, only to gasp as something pierced his back.

Looking down, he saw three golden, serrated claws sticking through his chest. With a harsh jerk, the claws dove upward. This reduced his life to zero... eliminating him.

The final man, clad in the leather armor, stood fearfully with his ax in hand. The smoke was beginning to clear, soon he could fight the bastard... "AH!" He screamed, dodging several dark purple blurs. "Throwing stars?" He asked, looking around the haze. He saw a figure within the smoke, a silhouette with three claws jutting out of it's right hand, which was held up before it's face. It's other hand was drawn back, more of the dark purple blurs held in it. Not a moment later the hail of metal commenced as shuriken after shuriken pounded into the body of the leader. He attempted to run, knowing he was outmatched. "P-please, leave me alone! Get away from me you monster!" He was terrified. This thing had killed his friends instantly, and now it was toying with him!

"Hahaheheh..." A horrifying laughter reached his ears. It was nothing but malicious intent wrapped in dark humor. The owner of that laugh wanted nothing more than to end his pitiful existence. "How ironic that someone like you ask for mercy from me." His laughter erupted from it's quiet chuckles into a full blown maniacal cackle. "Is it frightening to you? That you're going to die here as nothing but a worm crushed underfoot? Because, to me, this is the most fitting end someone like you could have."

The laughter of this demon still chased him as he ran away, or rather attempted to. His attempts were ceased by a well placed slice from a claw... which severed his left leg at the knee. "AHHH! GOD NO, MY LEG!" He screeched in terror. "PLEASE, LEAVE ME ALONE! PLEASE!" He screamed.

"No." Came the simple reply, as a blade plunged into the back of the fallen man. "Lelouch vi Britannia commands you to die."

And die he did, finally recognizing the malicious laughter from his nightmares. It was the laughter of the Demon Emperor.

* * *

"Wain! What happened to you, why do you have an orange cursor?" Argo spouted off immediately after the arrival of the mentally exhausted Gawain and Cecilia. Of course, the green haired girl (Why did Wain keep picking up random girls?) could wait. Certain matters took precedence.

A tired sigh came from the white haired lad, his cloak long gone. "Wannabe bandits." He replied. It had been four hours since that incident, and it had been a long and tiring trip. The reason for this being that Lelouch couldn't enter cities at the moment. He had to go around Starter City, enter the Dungeon, defeat any respawns, exit the dungeon, take the long route to the cottage via the forests, all with C.C. along so that he couldn't simply speed up...

Such a pain in the ass.

Lihua frowned, eyes narrowing slightly. "You killed them?" She guessed.

"Yes." He replied simply. "Had I simply left them be they would have attacked another group, likely a less capable group."

Argo cut in. "How many?" She asked.

Lelouch blinked. "Three. Why?"

"Ten days ago, a duo left starter city with three others in tow. They'd intended to grind up in a five man party. Three of them came back, the duo died. Did the three who attacked you have an ax, a sword and shield, and a short sword respectively?"

"Yes, the leader seemed to be the ax wielder." He replied. So he had avenged a pair of unfortunate souls? Brilliant.

The information broker sighed. "I can't believe people would want to kill eachother now of all times. This is..." She was at a loss for words. Why would such a small group of people, only eight thousand, have so many human beings willing to take the lives of others? Was it simply because they had no fear of consequences?

She looked towards the silent figure of the green haired girl Gawain had arrived with. "Hiya." Argo greeted cheerfully, her mood having done a full 180.

"Hello." C.C. replied. "You're Argo, right?" She asked.

"Yeah." The mousy girl answered. "Who're you?"

"I'm Cecilia. A friend of Alan's." The utterance of his "real" name caught the attention of the smaller girl. "Yes, I know him from reality." She clarified. "We were friends, and we've kept in touch since his graduation."

"I see..." Argo pondered this for a moment. "A friend of his is a friend of mine." She announced.

Lihua had been looking Lelouch over throughout the entire conversation. 'He had the posture of someone who's killed before. He's completely calm, no signs of repressed stress... either he's much better at hiding his emotions than most people, or he's already made his first kill.' Watching him simply talk about killing the trio as one would talk about the weather, this was all but confirmed to her. 'But was his first kill inside the game, or in the real world?' In the end, she realized, it didn't matter. He had acted out in self defense, after all.

But something was just odd about it all. Lihua gave up after a few moments of trying to figure out just what was bothering her. She was familiar with death, so that wasn't it. Gawain was stable after ending the lives of three pkers, which was a good thing in the long run. And he had also reaquainted himself with a friend from the real world.

And so she simply smiled and ignored the little voice in her head that was mumbling something unintelligible. If she couldn't figure out just what it was, it probably wasn't that important. Or so she told herself.

"So you two have been sleeping together?" C.C. commented with a devious smirk after Argo had let that little fact slip. "Oh, Alan, I'm so proud of you. But isn't she a bit young?"

Argo snickered as Lelouch's face lit up. "It's not like that." He replied, voice holding steady. "It's completely platonic."

"Until I get bored and finally decide to make a move." The girl in question announced with a mischievous gleam in her eyes.

"Not happening." Lelouch responded blandly.

"It probably will." C.C. teased.

Lihua spoke up. "You'd be cute together, even if there is a bit of an age difference." What was Gawain again? Eighteen? Argo was fifteen or so she believed. She had heard of much larger age gaps between significant others. After all, it was only eight years ago she had nearly been forced to marry a man nearly three times her age. Even less time had passed since her crush on Xingke, and the man's unfortunate passing. Age differences had never really been too much of a problem.

She supposed, since Britannia had been so willing to marry their Crown Prince off to a little girl, that country had no real qualms with it either. And she was certain that Gawain was a Britannian. He carried himself like one, his extremely minor accent pointed to it aswell, and he simply had that look to him. Of course, she could be wrong, but it wasn't likely.

As Lelouch tried to get over the fact that everyone in the house except for him seemed to want to get Argo into his pants, Argo agreed to let "Cecilia" stay with them. After all, any friend of Wain was a friend of hers. Not to mention all the fun things she had to know about him.

Information was Argo's drug. She loved to know things, especially things others don't know. And _especially _things she could make a profit from.

And if Argo could get ahold of any embarrassing stories about Lulu, then she could certainly profit from them in some way.

The snowy haired boy shivered inexplicably.

* * *

Thankfully Lelouch had kept his dignity throughout the night, much to C.C.'s chagrin. The witch was simply trying to get under his skin.

He wouldn't tell her this simply because then he would have to hear her reply with something along the lines of Argo trying to get under his clothes. That wouldn't do at all.

Seeing as how Lelouch couldn't enter the city, he had opted to wait at the dungeon entrance after asking Lihua to explain the situation to Kibaou. He would have asked Argo, but... well, Kibaou had a bad habit of cutting her down whenever he saw her. Bringing up the fresh wound of Diabel's death, blaming her faulty information as a major contributor to it... he was a spiteful man to those he didn't like.

And this is where we find the white-haired beauty now, standing before a party of six men in the middle of a crowd comprised of nearly seventy. The spiny haired brunette grunted slightly. "So, your friend was attacked by a group of PKers and was forced to kill them. And now he's got an orange cursor and is waiting outside the dungeon. That the gist of it?" He asked.

"Yes." Lihua replied. "He was a bit torn up about it, but it was him or them. They had made that quite clear before he dispatched them. Moreover, the three who attacked him matched up with the group that was suspected of killing a duo they had partied with, about ten days ago."

Kibaou growled. "Good. Taking advantage of numbers to prey on weaker players is disgusting. I'll give the group fair warning not to harm your friend, just confirm he is who you think he is before we get into the dungeon. I can trust him not to harm our group members, right?"

She nodded firmly. "He wouldn't harm any of them. He wants to get as many people out of Sword Art Online as possible. He's a very driven person."

The leader of the raid nodded. "Alright. I'll make the announcement ASAP. Thanks for telling me, wouldn't want your friend to be attacked on sight. What's his name?"

Lihua grimaced. Players who had an orange cursor were forsaken, basically. Killing them yielded a shorter period of Orange status, a day at most, and most people associated Orange players with PKing, which of course led to indiscriminate killing of anyone with an Orange cursor and no justification for having it. "His display name is Gawain."

With that done, Kibaou made the announcement that a member of their raid group was attacked by a group of PKers. After playing up the crowd by revealing the three as those responsible for the deaths of two players only two weeks before, he announced that their raid member was alive and well. The confusion spreading amongst the crowd was cut short when Kibaou told them that the player, Gawain, had slain all three of his attackers after they gave him an ultimatum. (Though he didn't actually use the word ultimatum. Probably didn't even know what it meant either.) After this statement, the reactions of the crowd were somewhat mixed.

"He killed three people? How could he do that?"

"Hey, it was him or them. He did what he had to do."

"Yeah, he's right. Those guys were PKers in the first place, everyone is safer with them gone."

"I don't like it, but you've got a point."

As the reactions settled down, the general consensus was that Gawain had made the right decision. Thankfully that was settled without incident.

A few moments after the announcement, Lihua arrived back with the group she had left. "There." She announced cheerfully. "Gawain is welcome in the group."

Argo let out a breath she had been holding. "Phew... I'm glad that's done. Thanks for doing that for me... Kibaou has a bad effect on my mood." She frowned.

"It's fine, Argo." Lihua assured her. "He's rash and impatient, quick to judge, and wouldn't stop staring at my chest, but he's decent enough as a leader."

C.C. snickered after her response. "Men are all the same." With that, she gave a not-so-subtle glance to the newest members of their party, Castor and Pollux. Specifically Pollux who had been discretely checking her out throughout their first meeting. He had stopped since them, after determining that it wasn't worth the trouble of dealing with her scathing wit and deadpan personality.

"Hmph." Pollux grunted. "I'm not blatant about it, at the very least. Some people ogle without even trying to hide it."

He had a point, actually. Pollux, while he still ogled suitably pretty women, did not do so blatantly. He was actually pretty discreet and otherwise somewhat gentlemanly. Until you pissed him off and heard him launch off a stream of curse words that would have made Tamaki blush. It was tolerable with him simply because most of the time girls weren't aware he was checking them out. And, of course, he stopped doing so after a bit.

Other men she'd come across didn't even bother trying to hide the fact that they were staring at her, still others making an absolute spectacle of themselves while drawing the attention of their friends to her. So, yes, in comparison Pollux was not that bad.

Still, teasing people was one of the few things C.C. got a kick out of after her many years alive, so she would never let the bluenette learn of her thoughts on the matter. "While you may not be blatant about ogling women, you're blatantly honest about telling us you do."

"Because I don't care. I keep my hands to myself, and if I just so happen to see something worth looking at? Then I do." Well well, this one had some bite to him.

"And what if you happen to see something you just can't keep your hands off of?" She asked in a sultry tone, moving towards him with a sway in her hips. Something she noticed his eyes following easily.

"You're underestimating his self control, miss Cecilia." Castor responded for his brother, who was too busy trying to keep from making a fool of himself in public. "While he is an unrepentant pervert-" "Hey!" "- he still handles himself with some modicum of restraint."

... Well Castor was just no fun at all, was he? Maybe C.C. could get him to loosen up? Or just drive him insane via pent up urges. He didn't seem like the kind to partake in temptations of the flesh, so teasing him would be fun. A bit like Lelouch when they had first met, before he built up a resistance to her taunts.

Any plans she had for the gentle looking twin were cut off as Kibaou announced that they were moving out. 'Ah well. There's always later.'

* * *

Lelouch sighed to himself, cutting down yet another Tauru which had strayed close enough to aggro him. What annoying creatures. That was like the fifth one. Annoying monstrosities indeed.

His brooding was cut short as the clearing group came into view, moments later Argo made herself known. "Hiya Wain. They're not gonna kill ya'." She announced cheerfully.

"Good." He chuckled. "Trouble seems to follow me, doesn't it Argo?"

The girl shrugged. "Yep. You're a magnet for trouble. It seems like everything that can go wrong does specifically to mess with you."

Once the group reached the dungeon entrance, Kibaou walked up to the hooded boy. "So you're the one that ended up killing off those three? I thought I recognized the name from somewhere." Kibaou was much less abrasive when he didn't have any negative information on people. Considering all he knew about Gawain was that he had been with them for the fight against Illfang and that he had killed off three pkers, the man had no real reason to be a dick to him.

"Yes. I had intended to just avoid them, but I heard them saying they would just find another small group to target. I knew I could deal with them, but I wasn't sure if their next targets could." He shrugged. "I could have just left them be and hoped no one else was killed, but I wasn't willing to."

The spiky haired man frowned. "I get where you're coming from." With that, he turned to the group and announced, once again, that Gawain was not to be attacked by anyone.

"Let's move on out!" Kibaou yelled, his group leading the march into the dungeon.

Lelouch made his way to the back of the crowd, linking up with his group plus Kirito. After the stunt he pulled on floor one, no one was willing to party with him. He was a solo player in the middle of a raid group. But, still, the seven of them stuck together. Castor and Pollux were idly bantering with one another, Argo cutting in at random times to bug Pollux. Kirito walked along silently, constantly alert. It was like he was afraid something was going to jump out of the walls and attack them.

Lihua was chatting with Cecila idly, though one could tell she was also peering about to locate any threats. Seventy people walking through here at once was pretty difficult. Those in the front and back were the only ones who were really able to do anything about the dungeon mobs, as the center of the group was pretty much a crowded mass of humanity with weapons they couldn't use without fear of hurting someone they didn't intend to.

A breath of relief passed through the group as they reached the doorway, emblazoned with skulls and fangs and claws. Much the same as the last door, though this one had a symbol that resembled a bovine skull with four horns.

"Alright. This is it." Kibaou announced. "Everyone remembers the plan? Group A is in charge of stopping Minos' charge. There shouldn't be any trash mobs, but if they do spawn then groups B, C, and D will deal with them while the remaining groups fight the boss. Group E will initiate on the boss, drawing aggro. Once they need to back off to heal, group F switches with them. We'll keep this rotation going. Everyone else will be DPSing the boss, including A, B and C if our info is right." He nodded. "Let's go!" He shouted, pushing open the door.

A large golden figure sat in the center of the room, eyes glowing a menacing red. It stood from it's hunched position and revealed itself to be a giant, larger than Illfang by a great deal. It's head bore two sets of horns, one pointing upward and another framing it's face and pointing directly infront of it. The hands of the creature were enormous, with the potential to crush boulders. A bovine tail sat at it's lower back, lazily waving behind the behemoth. As group E reached aggro range, the creature roared to life with a powerful battlecry.

"MOOOOOOO!" It roared, rushing forward with it's hands clasped above it's head, intending to crush them. It's attack was blocked by a man wielding a shield and a lance, his strength and defense stats keeping his health from falling too fast. With that first blow caught, the fighting truly began.

A nondescript man with blond hair grinned, seeing the bull stopped from it's assault. "Alright chums! Let's do this, LEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOY! JEEEEEEENNNNNKIIIIIINS!

"Did he seriously just say that?" Lelouch asked himself, slicing at the boss's ankles repeatedly. He jumped back as Minos raised his hoof in an attempt to smash him.

"I think he did." Argo confirmed, having been doing the same thing to the other leg. "At least he's motivated."

The bosses health dropped steadily, and upon reaching about 90% health it smashed the ground and knocked everyone back. The knockback did minor damage, but the charge it was preparing could kill if it wasn't stopped.

Minos roared in exertion as he dashed forward, head down and horns ready to run through the blond man who had shouted earlier. "HRAAAAAAHHH!" Agil roared, slamming his ax into the face of the bull with enough force to send them both flying, Agil moreso than Minos. But still, the charge had been halted.

Soon, the boss was down to half health, the battle going smoothly. They simply had so many fighters this time, it was difficult not to have someone moderately fresh attacking the boss. They couldn't even all surround it at once.

Excluding Argo and Lelouch who were simply agile enough to weave between the crowd and land their attacks on the boss, aiming specifically for the joints of it's knees and it's ankles. Weak points were scarce on this boss.

Which is why we find Lelouch analyzing the boss from a short distance. "Alright. Here goes nothing." With that said, he ran forward and leapt onto the back of the boss, driving his claw into the flesh between Minos' shoulders. The bull roared in anger and attempted to shake him off, being unable to reach his back. Lelouch chuckled, before pulling out three shuriken and planting them firmly in the back of the boss's skull. Minos roared, before using his knockback once more. 40% health left.

However, rather than charging, the bull leapt high into the air. Much higher than something it's size should be able to. He had positioned himself so that he would fall directly onto his back, crushing the annoying gnat that had been attached to him.

Of course, this served to accomplish nothing as Lelouch had wisely chosen to leap off of the boss as soon as he realized what was happening. He sustained a bit of fall damage, rolling on impact and dashing away from what was soon to be ground zero. The massive creature landed back first and created a massive crater in the ground, shooting debris into the air and managing to hit a few unfortunate players who hadn't reacted quickly enough.

While none were killed, being caught flatfooted like that had given those rocks a decent amount of damage. They would have to heal up before going back in.

"Well. That was new." Lelouch muttered. While the boss hadn't done that during the beta, it wasn't too unpredictable. "Good thing no one was under that."

Nearby him, Lihua nodded her head. "I'm surprised it can jump that high. Be ready, it's getting back up."

Though, something was off about the boss. Minos snorted, crossed his arms over his chest, and began to glow green. Kirito reacted instantly, shouting to the crowd. "It's healing! Make it stumble and it'll stop, otherwise it'll go straight back to full health!"

Luckily, there was an entire group dedicated solely to interrupting the boss's charge. And as such, they had no qualms with interrupting the boss while it healed. Agil and Katsu reacted instantly, dashing forward and slamming the boss with an ax and a shield, respectively. It stumbled backwards, only having healed about five percent of it's missing health. An angry snort followed as Minos slammed his hands down in another hammer pound, aiming to crush Agil and Katsu. They blocked it easily with their combined strength, allowing the fighting to begin anew.

While it took nearly an hour, the group finally managed to drop the health of the boss to about fifteen percent. Minos only used the leap to counter people landing on his back, which Lelouch was smart enough not to do a second time. His heal, however, he used alternatively with his charge. That is to say, right after his knockback. So each time it was used, Minos regenerated about five to seven percent of his health. It was an extremely annoying ability that was tedious to deal with.

But, in the end, it was still dealt with and the boss was still dying. Almost ten percent HP left. "BE CAREFUL!" Kibaou yelled out. "WE DON'T KNOW IF THIS BOSS WILL ENRAGE AT TEN PERCENT, SO STAY SAFE!"

The health of the boss chipped further away, and further... soon it was obvious Minos wouldn't enrage at ten percent. Only a small chunk of the final bar remained...

The bull went through another knockback, and was about to start healing again.

However, something unusual happened. Castor lost his temper. "ENOUGH OF THIS IDIOTIC HEALING!" He shouted, running forward and ramming his hammer into the belly of Minos, stumbling him and allowing Castor to continue wailing on him in a fury. "DIE YOU OBNOXIOUS COW! DIE!" And as he continued to smash the boss, people noticed that the boss was being stumbled on almost every strike.

Those who were in the know realized that this was because Castor simply wasn't giving it enough time to properly recover from the first stumble. The small stuns kept landing on the monster one after another, chained in perfect succession. At this point there was a dark blue glow surrounding his weapon as he continuously pounded away at the boss.

As soon as the clearers got over just how amazing this was to look at, they rushed in and began pounding on the monster themselves. Which broke the continuous chain Castor had managed to keep up throughout the entire ordeal.

The problem with the "stun barrage" Castor was landing on the boss was quite simple. If someone else hits the target and offsets the rhythm of the attacks, it's disrupted and the target is broken out of it's CClock. (Crowd Control lock.) While it wasn't a big deal here, since Minos was dying quite nicely, it would be a major issue if someone was distracting an enemy specifically to provide safe escape for others.

Minos groaned in anger, hands raised over his head for a final smash in an attempt to heal. Castor was having none of that and simply slammed the head of his hammer into the falling hand's of the giant, knocking them away. His momentum kept going and his hammer smashed directly into the face of the crouching minotaur.

In a shower of pixels, the creature was no more. Small white panels appeared before each member of the clearing team, indicating they had leveled up. It would be common for this to happen on the lower floors, where EXP requirements to level weren't too high. Later on, however... not so much.

"Wow, Cas. I haven't seen you that pissed since..." He was cut off by a frosty glare from his brother. "Ah heh heh... I'll not bring that up again."

"A wise decision, brother. My disposition is far less pleasant than normal today." Castor sighed. "I apologize. I've had a bit of repressed anger that needed to be loosed upon something."

"Yeah, well you sure did loose some anger on that bull. I didn't know you had managed to get the timing on that stun storm of yours working." Pollux complimented.

Castor chuckled a bit. "Nor did I, brother."

Pollux's golden eyes widened. "No way..." He burst out laughing. "That is RICH! You seriously didn't stop to think about whether or not it would work?"

"Yes, I let my anger get the better of me. I'll be sure to keep a tighter reign on my emotions lest they get me killed." Castor assured him.

"That's good. I actually like you. Your brother? Well, the less said, the better." Argo called as she sauntered up to the duo. "Good job on the boss by the way, Castor. You got the last hit incase you didn't realize."

The bluenette blinked. He actually hadn't realized at the time. "I... did?" He muttered. "Oh. I did." Yes, apparently he had been awarded... a hammer. Happy coincidence. "Equus." He muttered. Upon equipping the item, which had much better stats than his old hammer, he couldn't help but be impressed.

She shaft was a pure black color, and about four feet in length. Dark blue cloth was wrapped around the metal shaft to improve grip and for decoration, a short tassel at the bottom. The head of the hammer was a dark stonelike material, shaped like a pair of cloven hooves attached to one another at the top. Various carvings were etched into the stone, detailed carvings of horses running.

"I like it. It'll be a shame when I need to replace it..." He muttered.

Lelouch, not really wanting to get involved with the crowds, decided to backtrack out of the dungeon. He lightly tapped Argo's shoulder as he passed. "I'll be heading back to the house."

"You sure? You don't wanna go see.. oh, right." She'd forgotten about the cursor.

"Yes. It'll take long enough to backtrack around Urbus, I don't want to put any more distance between myself and home." He replied. "I'll see you in a bit."

As he made his way out, Argo noticed that Lihua and Cecilia had both followed after him. "Huh." Argo pondered. 'I can understand Cecilia, they're friends from real life after all. She probably wants to spend time with him more than roaming Aincrad. But why is the Empress of the Chinese Federation so interested in him?' Argo's curiosity was peaked, but it would have to wait. There were things she needed to do on the third floor.

While it may not have been the nicest thing to do, being the first person to get to certain resources was still good business sense. Something Argo had in spades.

* * *

Alright. Authors note time.

As some of you may realize (Especially since Thanathos pointed it out in a review, and I'm not the only one who reads those. I think.), I've messed up the way PKing and Orange cursors work. While originally this wasn't intentional, I'm going to roll with it. After all, you've gotta flex the rules a bit sometimes for the sake of plot. It may seem like a cop-out, and in some ways it is, but I'll make it into something. Just trust me on that.

Anyway. Stuff happened this chapter, lots of stuff. Since I'm sure we're all getting bored of these floors, don't worry! We'll be having a time skip soon into the next chapter, where we get to some of the floors that went unvisited... which means I can have some fun with them.

Oh, by the way. While some people may be wondering if the title of the story is just a random, it's not. Don't worry, it'll make sense eventually.


End file.
